School of Global Integrative Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, United States of America.
School of Public Affairs and Administration, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2023 Mar 16;18(3):e0282797. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0282797. eCollection 2023.
Water quality governance encompasses multiple "wicked" interacting problems that manifest within social-ecological systems. Concerned governments, institutions, and actors concerned with addressing these issues must wrestle with complex systems that span time, space, and scale. This complexity of connected systems requires the participation of multiple actors across political boundaries, problem areas, and hydrologic domains. In Lake Champlain (US), frequent cyanobacteria blooms negatively affect property values, recreational activities, and public infrastructure, in addition to their impacts on the aquatic ecosystem. Through a survey of actors working on water quality in the Lake Champlain Basin, we analyze how actor participation in structured issue forums creates a network of connected action situations across multiple spatial scales and problem domains. We apply exponential random graph models to quantify the effects of scale, issues, and homophily on actor participation in these forums. Our findings show that actors tend to favor participating in similarly scoped forums at their spatial scale, that actors are less likely to participate in structured forums focused on agriculture, and that actors participate independently of others with whom they have pre-existing collaborative relationships. Further, we find that in the case of the Lake Champlain Basin, actor participation in issues related to water quality is misaligned with modeled sources of nutrient pollution. This study demonstrates that the design and maintenance of water quality action situations play an important role in attracting the participation of actors working collaboratively to address wicked social-ecological problems. Further, linking current and potential configurations of governance networks to social-ecological outcomes can aid in the effective and efficient achievement of management objectives.
水质治理涵盖了在社会-生态系统中表现出来的多个相互作用的“棘手”问题。关注这些问题的有关政府、机构和行为者必须应对跨越时间、空间和尺度的复杂系统。这些相互关联的系统的复杂性要求跨越政治边界、问题领域和水文区域的多个行为者参与。在尚普兰湖（美国），频繁的蓝藻水华除了对水生生态系统造成影响外，还对房地产价值、娱乐活动和公共基础设施造成负面影响。通过对尚普兰湖流域水质工作的行为者进行调查，我们分析了行为者如何通过参与有组织的问题论坛，在多个空间尺度和问题领域建立相互关联的行动情境网络。我们应用指数随机图模型来量化规模、问题和同质性对这些论坛中行为者参与的影响。我们的研究结果表明，行为者往往倾向于在其空间尺度上参与类似范围的论坛，他们不太可能参与以农业为重点的结构化论坛，并且行为者独立于他们已经存在合作关系的其他人参与。此外，我们发现，在尚普兰湖流域的情况下，行为者参与与水质相关的问题与模型预测的营养物污染来源不匹配。这项研究表明，水质行动情境的设计和维护在吸引合作解决棘手社会-生态问题的行为者参与方面发挥着重要作用。此外，将当前和潜在的治理网络配置与社会-生态结果联系起来，可以帮助有效地实现管理目标。
