Renner Tobias, Meijerink Sander
1Institute for Science, Innovation and Society, Radboud University, P.O. Box 9010, 6500 GL, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
2Institute for Management Research, Radboud University, PO Box 9108, 6500 HK, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Reg Environ Change. 2018;18(5):1287-1298. doi: 10.1007/s10113-017-1178-5. Epub 2017 Jul 21.
In this study, we look at the role which water policy entrepreneurs play in promoting and stimulating climate adaptation measures in international river basins. In a Dutch-German case study in the Rhine delta, we explore the range of strategies that policy entrepreneurs employ in cross-border water management to effectively anchor and embed climate adaptation in the water policy debate. We focus on climate adaptation on the local and regional scale in the Deltarhine region where increased flooding and prolonged drought periods are expected under the current climate change scenarios with a considerable impact on flood protection, agricultural activities, drinking water and ecosystem development. We analyse the impact of policy entrepreneurs while coping with the challenging cross-border setting and dealing with structural differences in national systems such as the legal and institutional framework. It is shown that whilst the European water guidelines advocate a river basin approach across borders, the guidelines do not (yet) play a catalyst role regarding climate adaptation, and the presence and activities of policy entrepreneurs contribute in putting climate adaptation on the cross-border policy agenda. Finally, marked differences in the presence of entrepreneurs in Germany and the Netherlands are observed for which two important complementary explanations are offered relating to contextual elements of power asymmetry and dependency as well as different policy styles and organisational cultures in both countries.
在本研究中，我们考察了水政策企业家在促进和推动国际流域气候适应措施方面所发挥的作用。在莱茵河三角洲的一个荷兰-德国案例研究中，我们探究了政策企业家在跨境水资源管理中所采用的一系列策略，以便在水政策辩论中有效地确立并融入气候适应措施。我们关注的是德尔塔莱茵地区地方和区域层面的气候适应情况，在当前气候变化情景下，该地区预计洪水会增加，干旱期会延长，这将对防洪、农业活动、饮用水供应和生态系统发展产生重大影响。我们分析了政策企业家在应对具有挑战性的跨境环境以及处理国家体系中的结构差异（如法律和制度框架）时所产生的影响。结果表明，虽然欧洲水政策指南倡导跨境流域方法，但这些指南在气候适应方面尚未发挥催化作用，而政策企业家的存在和活动有助于将气候适应提上跨境政策议程。最后，我们观察到德国和荷兰在企业家存在情况方面存在显著差异，并针对此提供了两个重要的补充解释，分别涉及权力不对称和依赖的背景因素，以及两国不同的政策风格和组织文化。
