The Influence of Scale Preferences on the Design of a Water Innovation: A Case in Dutch River Management

The Influence of Scale Preferences on the Design of a Water Innovation: A Case in Dutch River Management

Vreugdenhil, H.S.I.
Slinger, J.
Kater, E.
Thissen, W.

Technology, Policy and Management

Multi Actor Systems

2010-07-18

The debate on scale use in river management focuses primarily on the (lack of) fit between the biogeophysical and institutional systems. However, in this article we focus on the ‘subjective’ aspect of scale preferences in water governance. We apply an adapted version of the Integrated Scale Hierarchy for Rivers to determine the degree of fit between the scale preferences of the actors involved in a Dutch case study and the scale requirements of the innovative river management concept. This allows us to understand which riverine processes and characteristics are regarded as important by the different actors and to identify mismatches in scale perspectives as they manifest themselves in water management practice. We discover that inflexibility in scale use on the part of the involved actors places bounds on the design and quality of interventions and demonstrate that a more flexible use of scales in the design phase of a river management intervention has the potential to lead to more effective solutions.

river management
scale preferences
flexible scale use
pilot project
cyclic floodplain rejuvenation
water governance
integrated scale hierarchy
hydrodynamic modelling
multi actor systems

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:594f36e7-7f91-4a42-bd24-f8d15d8ebd9f

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-010-9524-0

Springer

0364-152X

Environmental Management, July 17, 2010

Institutional Repository

journal article

(c) 2010 The Author(s)