Canada Research Chair, Climate Change, Energy and Sustainability, Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, 3rd Floor, 2155 College Avenue, College Avenue Campus, Regina, SK, S4S 0A2, Canada.
M.P.P. Candidate, Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, Canada.
J Environ Manage. 2023 Apr 15;332:117289. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.117289. Epub 2023 Feb 1.
Best Management Practices and Beneficial Management Practices ("MP") are two ideational elements, that have emerged in water quality literature. This research explores the questions of where has the lesser utilized term 'Beneficial' emerged and why? To answer these questions, articles obtained from the Web of Science by searching keywords "Best MP"/"Beneficial MP" and "Water" are analyzed using bibliometric techniques through VOS Viewer including time trend of publications, and indicators including keywords, disciplines, institutions, geographies, influential authors and journals, and key funders of these two terms. This paper also employs document analysis and semi-structured interviews with key policy stakeholders. Beneficial Management Practices emerged in Canada (although the term was used in a few instances elsewhere) in Canadian government policy documents starting in 2003. The term 'Beneficial' refers to a lesser standard than "Best" and is exclusive to agricultural practices in risk and environmental farm policy; "Best Management Practices" refer to a wider set of practices (in other sectors like mining) utilized by a more substantive and diverse set of institutions (predominately American and significantly populated by universities). Explanations for the emergence of the term include that it is more 'honest,' it allows for more choices and trade-offs, it reflects the strong economic driver of agriculture, and several interviewees referred to it better reflecting the uncertainty of science. While the strength of the agricultural sector in influencing the 'Beneficial' discourse is not surprising, the failure to measure the improvement to the water quality of Beneficial Management Programs and measure policy's effectiveness is noteworthy.
最佳管理实践和有益管理实践（“MP”）是两个理念元素，它们出现在水质文献中。本研究探讨了较少使用的术语“有益”从何而来以及为什么？为了回答这些问题，通过使用 VOS Viewer 中的书目计量技术分析了从 Web of Science 中搜索关键词“最佳 MP”/“有益 MP”和“水”获得的文章，包括出版物的时间趋势，以及包括关键字、学科、机构、地理位置、有影响力的作者和期刊以及这两个术语的主要资助者在内的指标。本文还采用文献分析和对关键政策利益相关者的半结构化访谈。“有益管理实践”一词出现在加拿大（尽管该术语在其他地方也有少数几次使用）的加拿大政府政策文件中，始于 2003 年。“有益”一词是指比“最佳”标准低，并且仅适用于风险和环境农业政策中的农业实践；“最佳管理实践”是指更广泛的实践（在矿业等其他部门），由更实质性和多样化的机构（主要是美国，并且有大量大学）使用。术语出现的解释包括它更“诚实”，它允许更多的选择和权衡，它反映了农业的强大经济驱动力，以及几位受访者提到它更好地反映了科学的不确定性。虽然农业部门在影响“有益”话语方面的实力并不令人惊讶，但未能衡量有益管理计划对水质的改善程度并衡量政策的有效性值得注意。
