We found a match
Your institution may have rights to this item. Sign in to continue.
- Title
Political and Professional Agency Entrapment: An Agenda for Urban Water Research.
- Authors
Brown, Rebekah; Ashley, Richard; Farrelly, Megan
- Abstract
The many societal benefits provided by traditional, centralised urban water servicing models are being re-examined following recent extreme weather events, climate uncertainty and other variable socio-technical trends. Total water cycle management offers a more flexible and resilient approach to urban water management, however, transformative change in the sector is difficult. A growing number of scholars have identified that the urban water sector is locked-in to the current large-scale, centralised infrastructure model and suggest the sector is unable to accommodate new technologies and management approaches beyond niche projects. Based on extensive socio-institutional research and example cases from Australian and United Kingdom experiences managing urban water under pressures such as modern environmentalism, prolonged water scarcity and sewerage overflows, this paper provides a commentary on common factors exhibited in both countries related to technological path dependency. Three key factors promoting this pathway: political risk, professional agency fear and a lack of a hybrid governance approach are discussed and a future scholarly research agenda is presented.
- Publication
Water Resources Management, 2011, Vol 25, Issue 15, p4037
- ISSN
0920-4741
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s11269-011-9886-y