Environment, Resources and Sustainability

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/handle/10012/9917

This is the collection for the University of Waterloo's School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability.

Research outputs are organized by type (eg. Master Thesis, Article, Conference Paper).

Waterloo faculty, students, and staff can contact us or visit the UWSpace guide to learn more about depositing their research.

Browse

Browsing Environment, Resources and Sustainability by Author "de Loë, Rob"

Filter results by typing the first few letters
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Drivers and Implications for Water Governance: A case study of the western Lake Erie basin
    (University of Waterloo, 2022-08-02) Mills, Erin; de Loë, Rob
    The purpose of this study was to better understand drivers of water problems and their implications for water governance scholarship and practice. Drivers here are identified as social and environmental forces affecting a system, such as a Great Lakes basin. Eutrophication in the western Lake Erie basin provides the empirical setting to achieve the study purpose, using the following objectives: (i) identify drivers of eutrophication in the western Lake Erie basin, (ii) determine whether these drivers are taken into account in nutrient management efforts, and (iii) assess the relationships among drivers and water governance. Two parallel cases of nutrient management, in the Canadian and United States’ (US) portions of the western basin, are explored using policy Delphi surveys with practitioners and researchers, and content analysis of formal nutrient management documents such as strategies and agreements. Findings from the research revealed that nutrient management efforts are identifying many of the same drivers (e.g., agricultural operations) that emerged from the data. Overlaps between the US and Canadian case studies indicate a shared understanding of the causes of eutrophication in the western Lake Erie basin. Areas of overlap between the policy Delphi surveys and document analyses within each of the case studies indicate shared perspectives from experts and formal nutrient management documents. These overlaps were expected, since Lake Erie is a transboundary body of water shared between Canada and the US, and the two countries have worked together for over a century to address water quality and quantity concerns through binational agreements and agencies. However, there were also differences in the sets of identified drivers of eutrophication that raised questions about the strength of shared understandings both within and between the US and Canadian case studies. For example, some drivers identified in the Canadian policy Delphi were not identified in the Canadian document analysis or in the US case study. These gaps indicate areas where nutrient management in the western Lake Erie basin could be improved through coordinated efforts to develop shared problem framings of eutrophication. The study findings empirically demonstrate the importance of identifying drivers when addressing water problems as well as the challenges that can occur when problem framings are mismatched within and across jurisdictions. When determining whether these drivers of eutrophication are taken into account by nutrient management efforts in the western Lake Erie basin, a similar pattern emerged. There was agreement among both the US and Canadian policy Delphi surveys and document analyses that several major drivers of eutrophication are taken into account in nutrient management efforts by multiple mechanisms ranging from research to regulation, including efforts involving agricultural operations. However, gaps were identified both within and between the US and Canadian case studies on whether some drivers of eutrophication are taken into account by nutrient management efforts. The concept of sufficiency emerged from Canadian and US policy Delphi participants. In this way, a driver may be taken into account to some extent, but these efforts were identified as insufficient to mitigate the driver as a cause of eutrophication. Together, these findings raise questions about the effectiveness of nutrient management efforts in the western Lake Erie basin. Specifically, the results suggest that the persistence of eutrophication may be due at least in part to a failure to take drivers into account. From the policy Delphi survey and document analysis data, evidence also emerged regarding the relationships between drivers and water governance. Existing framings of eutrophication do not explicitly identify water governance as a driver of eutrophication. The results demonstrated that water governance could be a driver of eutrophication, for example by shaping nutrient management actions. The results also showed that there are dynamic relationships among drivers of eutrophication and the water governance system, with influences moving bidirectionally across levels and scales. This empirical demonstration contributes to the currently understudied subject of driver directionality in the social-ecological systems and water governance literatures. This research makes several contributions to the water governance and SES literatures. The dissertation contributes to emerging discussions in the water governance literature on the importance of identifying and accounting for drivers, including their relationships with water governance, when addressing water problems. There are currently knowledge gaps on characterizing drivers within specific contexts and understanding the relationships between driver perception and management. I address these gaps by identifying the drivers of eutrophication in the western Lake Erie basin and determining whether those drivers are taken into account by nutrient management efforts. The use of the document analyses in combination with the policy Delphi surveys was a methodological approach that has not been widely used. In this research, the two methods provided nuanced and novel perspectives on drivers of eutrophication. In the eutrophication literature broadly, and in discussions of Lake Erie specifically, drivers of eutrophication are often framed as biophysical or socioeconomic factors. The identification of the water governance system and nutrient management efforts, including actors, policies, and program effectiveness, as drivers of eutrophication in the western Lake Erie basin is a contribution to the eutrophication literature that is unique to this research. This identification and characterization of water governance systems as a driver also adds value to other explorations of water problems and their associated water governance systems. Overall, the research contributes to understandings in the water governance literature on the relationships that exist between water governance and drivers by demonstrating that these relationships are bidirectional and exist across scales. The empirical findings of the research demonstrate the utility of regional case studies for filling identified knowledge gaps in the SES literature on understanding how drivers interact, how governance affects solutions to water problems, and how these relationships have influence across scales, as well as demonstrating the need for additional research. The findings of this research also have implications for the empirical practice of water governance in the western Lake Erie basin. By identifying gaps in identifying drivers and accounting for drivers through nutrient management efforts, the research identifies opportunities to improve nutrient management efforts and water quality outcomes in the western Lake Erie basin. Specifically, there are differences in how drivers of eutrophication are understood and taken into account by nutrient management efforts. These differences indicate that work is necessary both within the Canadian and US jurisdictions as well as binationally to deepen the shared understanding of eutrophication and how its causes are perceived. To improve water quality in the western Lake Erie basin, it is necessary to critically examine nutrient management effectiveness and incorporate the novel drivers of eutrophication identified by the research into framings of eutrophication as well as nutrient management solutions.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Rethinking Flood Risk Management
    (University of Waterloo, 2022-02-07) Emami, Parastoo; de Loë, Rob
    ABSTRACT Damages due to flooding have increased significantly in recent years and are predicted to rise globally despite many attempts by governments to mitigate flooding. Since 2015, global efforts to reduce the risk of flooding and to promote adaptation have gained momentum. These efforts include the development of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. Despite the increase in global attention, there is evidence that the unpredictable impacts of climate change, combined with changes in social and economic trends, are not being adequately addressed in flood risk management strategies around the globe (FRM). A key concern is the roles played by natural or human-induced factors that directly or indirectly cause a change in the risk of flooding or the ways in which flooding is managed or governed. These are referred to as “drivers of change”. While the challenges and impacts of drivers of change on FRM are widely recognized by researchers and policymakers, very few studies have explored the impact of drivers of change on FRM at the global and local levels. Therefore, it is beneficial to study FRM systems in different social, economic, and environmental contexts to identify a global and local range of drivers of change, their impacts on FRM, and their implication for governance. Examining drivers of change and studying their potential impact on flood management sheds light on pathways to change flood management approaches and to connect with broader social ecological systems to adjust to, cope with, or benefit from the impact of drivers of change. The overall purpose of this research is to identify and assess drivers of change and their influence on flood management. Four research objectives follow from this overall purpose: (1) build a conceptual framework that recognizes and accounts for impacts of drivers of change on flood management using insights from the Social-Ecological Systems (SES) Framework, institutional design and analysis, flood management, and broader water governance literature; (2) apply the conceptual framework to detect drivers of change and to understand the ways in which flood management and water governance literature have identified and addressed the influence of drivers of change on flood management; (3) use this framework empirically to examine flood management approaches concerning the influence of drivers of change in Ontario and the City of Toronto; and (4) identify ways in which institutional arrangements for flood management can be changed to reduce and manage the risk of flooding by accounting for drivers of change. This dissertation used a mixed-method design that combined a systematic review of FRM literature with case study research in the City of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. A systematic review of peer-reviewed papers (n=170) was conducted to identify the most common and noted drivers of change. Using the systematic review, I explored FRM literature capacity to recognize or acknowledge the impact of drivers of change (Chapter Two). Case study research focused on the FRM systems in the City of Toronto, which is nested in the Ontario FRM system (Chapter Three and Four). In total twenty-eight key informant interviews were conducted. All participants had a managerial role in their organization and were purposefully recruited based upon their knowledge of FRM in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and/or their involvement with the selected FRM systems. Personal observation and analysis of more than 230 documents provided additional data used in the analysis. Documents included statutes, case law, and reports from government agencies, the insurance industry, and other actors. The collected data described, explained, and exemplified the scientific, engineering, policy, management, and governance approaches in FRM systems in the City of Toronto and Port Lands Flood Protection Project. The empirical findings reveal that the most noted drivers are usually portrayed as global challenges outside the scope of FRM or governance, despite having a noticeable impact on the flood hazard and vulnerability at a local level. Defining and categorizing drivers of change facilitates identifying direct and indirect drivers that exist in different levels and scales (temporal and spatial). Identifying drivers of change is a necessary first step to rethink FRM approaches. This analysis also concluded that awareness of drivers of change and their impacts on FRM is increasing among people involved. The result from the systematic review reveals that drivers of change are emerging in five key categories: Environment (ENV), Policy (POL), Technology (TEC), Economy (ECO), and Social (SOC). The systematic review analysis also highlighted a gap in defining and categorizing drivers of change or weighing their impact on flood risk and vulnerability. To address this gap, I developed a conceptual framework that situates the select FRM system in the broader social-ecological systems and accounts for the pre-existing conditions in the system. The conceptual framework, as a major contribution of this research, presents a new approach to identify the impacts of drivers of change on flood risk management using insight from the modified CIS (Combined Institutional Analysis Development and Social-Ecological Systems and a diagnostic approach. The conceptual framework follows a four-step analysis and supports high-level and in-depth research in the case study approach. In the four-step analysis, the first step is to define the action situation as clearly as possible. The second step, “spiralling inwards,” determines if a FRM perspective is appropriate. The third step critically reflects on the boundaries of the current action situation to facilitate the analysis' final step, which focuses on identifying opportunities to improve governance by accounting for drivers of change in the selected action situation. Together, the last two steps promote inquiry into interactions “external” to the selected action situation; they involve, which involves “spiralling outwards” to explore broader interactions and their impact on current FRM contextual factors. Using the four-step analysis, I explored the impacts of drivers of change on institutional arrangements to highlight opportunities and weaknesses in the selected action situation. The case study research results highlight thirteen drivers of change relevant to FRM in the City of Toronto and five main drivers of change in the Port Lands Flood Protection Project. Further, this dissertation emphasizes a need for strengthening nested polycentric governance in FRM by engaging all levels of government. Further, examining drivers of change in the Port Lands Flood Protection Project provides a lens into the characteristics of an innovative institutional design that can adjust to, cope with, or benefit from the impacts of drivers of change. This innovative institutional design has enhanced collaboration among public and private actors while providing a strong business agenda to ensure the continuity of the projects and the plans. Finally, this dissertation makes scholarly and practical contributions. Scholarly contributions complement literatures on water and environmental governance, flood risk management, institutional analysis, and flexibility literature. Practical and policy contributions address the impacts of drivers of change on FRM in Ontario and the City of Toronto and build the case for more flexible institutional arrangements.