Successful water governance pathways across problem contexts: a global qualitative comparative analysis
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In: Ecology and Society, Vol. 30, No. 4, 2, 10.2025.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Successful water governance pathways across problem contexts
T2 - a global qualitative comparative analysis
AU - Bilalova, Shahana
AU - Jager, Nicolas W.
AU - Newig, Jens
AU - Villamayor-Tomas, Sergio
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2025, Resilience Alliance. All rights reserved.
PY - 2025/10
Y1 - 2025/10
N2 - It is widely acknowledged that the global water crisis is a governance crisis. To be effective, governance interventions must be designed to align with the specific context in which they are implemented. Our research aims to identify the types of water governance pathways that lead to successful sustainability performance, with a particular focus on the role of problem contexts. We use fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to examine 41 water governance cases that address groundwater exploitation in agriculture and surface water pollution. The analysis reveals a clear link between the nature of the water problem and successful governance pathways, emphasizing the need for governance measures to align with the specific characteristics of the problems they aim to address. The results also underscore the importance of governance capacity, as evidenced in all three pathways that emerge as solutions in our QCA. Finally, the study shows that no single governance characteristics guarantees success; rather, it is the interplay of multiple, reinforcing governance characteristics that contributes to successful sustainability performance.
AB - It is widely acknowledged that the global water crisis is a governance crisis. To be effective, governance interventions must be designed to align with the specific context in which they are implemented. Our research aims to identify the types of water governance pathways that lead to successful sustainability performance, with a particular focus on the role of problem contexts. We use fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to examine 41 water governance cases that address groundwater exploitation in agriculture and surface water pollution. The analysis reveals a clear link between the nature of the water problem and successful governance pathways, emphasizing the need for governance measures to align with the specific characteristics of the problems they aim to address. The results also underscore the importance of governance capacity, as evidenced in all three pathways that emerge as solutions in our QCA. Finally, the study shows that no single governance characteristics guarantees success; rather, it is the interplay of multiple, reinforcing governance characteristics that contributes to successful sustainability performance.
KW - governance pathways
KW - problem-specific pathways
KW - QCA
KW - sustainability performance
KW - water governance
KW - Sustainability Governance
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105019296083&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.5751/ES-16402-300402
DO - 10.5751/ES-16402-300402
M3 - Journal articles
AN - SCOPUS:105019296083
VL - 30
JO - Ecology and Society
JF - Ecology and Society
SN - 1708-3087
IS - 4
M1 - 2
ER -