Finding Common Water

Abstract

The Rhine River distributes water to more than 60 million residents, vital industries, and important agricultural sites across a total of eight countries. However, due to climate change, the availability of water resources has become increasingly dependent on seasonal supply and internal distribution (UNESCO, 2009). Moreover, extended periods of high river flow have the potential to pose threats to the urbanized regions along the Rhine (IKSR, 2011; Rottler et al., 2021; Stahl et al., 2022). In light of these developments, questions arise concerning the rights to use and manage the water. Simultaneously, water governance along the Rhine remains weak, with limited coordination between nation-states, sectors, and other relevant stakeholders, resulting in minimal influence at the local level (Rietveld et al., 2013; Akamami, 2016; Moodie, et al., 2022). Against this backdrop, this project focuses on the spatial element of the "dike" as a mechanism to control water flows and simultaneously restore the lost connection between local stakeholders and the Rhine.

The project, titled "Finding Common Water," employs the new governance principle of Active Subsidiarity to prioritize local and regional autonomy in water management and identify issues that can only be addressed at higher levels of governance. Its goal is to investigate the potential for delegating the decision-making process of dike management to local levels of society. By enabling self-organizing capacity at lower levels of government, independent stakeholder systems can be synchronized to support adaptive water governance and localized protection.

The methodology of the project comprises several components. It includes literature review studies to enhance understanding of changes in governmental schemes in the transition to adaptive water governance. Additionally, a socio-spatial analysis is conducted on the Rhine River to assess current conditions related to drought, water discharge trends, water usage, and water management. To assign water management to local levels of society, the areas surrounding the Rhine are viewed as hydro-social territories. These territories are based on the mutual relationship between "water" and social, political, economic, cultural, and biophysical systems at a particular scale.

Drawing from the Dutch water management, a roadmap is created, following the principles of Active Subsidiarity toward localized dike autonomy. This roadmap empowers local stakeholder groups to evaluate their capacity to self-organize their relationship with the river through the spatial element of the dike. An assessment of indicators is made to evaluate the potential for localized dike autonomy. This is divided into four main subcategories: The Authoritative Region, The Dike, The Suitability Conditions, and The River Dynamics. By creating a calculation formula for these four main subcategories, potential locations along the Rhine suitable for localized dike autonomy can be identified. Finally, a test case is utilized to demonstrate the potential spatial outcomes of local dike autonomy.. Finally, a testcase is used to show the possible spatial outcomes of local dike autonomy.