Project
The introduction and up-scaling of novel technologies in water governance (Postdoc project - Kirsty Holstead)
The overall ambition of this project is to understand how to enable transformation in water systems in the Netherlands to ensure fresh water provision now and in the future.
The project will examine the factors that influence how circular water management takes place and how novel water technologies can be adopted and up-scaled.
Introduction
You may associate the Netherlands with having too much water, rather than not enough. But as the impacts of climate change develop, we can expect threats to freshwater. This is a societal concern because we use fresh water for our basic needs: in addition to drinking water, it is also used in our industrial and agricultural production, and ecosystems depend on it.
As part of the AQUACONNECT project, different novel technologies are being developed within the Netherlands, such as modelling and design tools that allow the identification and potential use of water resources and subsurface water storage. These technologies may help ensure our water supply in the future.
While these technologies may potentially offer solutions to fresh water availability challenges, they raise questions, and challenges exist such as: are the water technologies publicly and politically accepted? How do they fit within existing rules and regulations, and ways of managing water in the Netherlands? And in which contexts they best may be suited?
So while technologies are being developed, governance barriers exist. Without further elaboration and development, water technologies may create unexpected challenges, may not be up-scaled, and the potential benefits may not be realised. Approaches are required to anticipate and mitigate these disruptions.
Project description
This project examines technologies that ensure freshwater provision in the Netherlands. We aim to develop and promote strategies that secure the implementation and use of water provisioning technologies, though understanding the barriers and opportunities that exist, and applying these learnings.
The project involves:
- Identifying dynamics in water governance to review relevant conditions (such as problem pressure, political perceptions, the presence of policy instruments) that create or hinder the development, implementation, and use of novel water technologies.
- Examining best practice cases from the Netherlands and further afield, and assimilating knowledge to understand how barriers are and could be overcome.
- Producing hands-on guidance for stakeholders in the Netherlands on how to make up-scaling of water technologies a reality.
