Keep it complex: Critical perspectives on water governance for dynamic social-hydrological systems

Freshwater resources are experiencing mounting social and environmental pressures, including growing competition over resources between water users and sectors, and a rapidly changing climate. Addressing these concerns is largely an issue of governance, which is often embedded in complex socio-political contexts and compounded by hydrological complexities such as nonlinearity and uncertainty. Integrative responses that capture complexity without over-simplifications are therefore needed; nevertheless, complex problems can rarely be fully 'solved' due to multiple, often conflicting, perspectives, needs and values amongst stakeholders.

In this dissertation, I explore what it means to "keep it complex" as we grapple with complex water governance challenges that often defy traditional problem-solving approaches, and involve many perspectives. The overarching aim of the dissertation is to develop critical perspectives on water governance that account for both biophysical and social complexity in social–hydrological systems. The dissertation adds theoretical depth to water governance literature through two conceptual contributions: a governance 'solutionscape', linking science, policy, practice and participation through six possible solution-types; and a resilience–governance framework, linking theories of interactive governance, social-ecological systems, and resilience.

Two case studies from a small sub-catchment of the Limpopo River Basin in South Africa and the Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia provide empirical insights in two dynamic social–hydrological systems undergoing significant environmental and social change. In the Limpopo, water governance processes and outcomes are dictated by historical commercial farming legacies, inadequate monitoring networks, and infrequent groundwater recharge. While seasonal climate forecasts could contribute to more sustainable groundwater use, their uptake is low due to a lack of credibility, poor dissemination, and farmers' traditional beliefs. Resilience-thinking reveals rigidity traps in the Tonle Sap's governing system, which undermine its resilience to ongoing social-ecological transformation caused by mounting pressures in the Mekong (e.g., hydropower dams). Both cases demonstrate how rapid, transformative institutional change may have limited practical impact if not accompanied by changes in cultural values and day-to-day actions.

Navigating complexity therefore requires recognition of biophysical uncertainties, imperfect solutions, and value-laden questions related to governance. The dissertation's amalgamation of different perspectives on environmental change and complexity suggests an epistemological shift from focusing on institutional design and structure (governing complexity), towards capturing dynamic processes and relations within governance (governing in complexity), including the role of historical legacies, beliefs, and social relations in hindering or facilitating change. By doing so, more transformative ways forward may be imagined, negotiated, and enacted.