Modeling water quality governance networks on the Missisquoi River Watershed


TitleModeling water quality governance networks on the Missisquoi River Watershed
Publication TypeConference Paper and Presentation
Year of Publication2018
AuthorsBitterman, P
Conference NameLake Champlain Research Conference
Date Published2018/01
PublisherLake Champlain Basin Program
Conference LocationBurlington, VT
Abstract

The ability of a social-ecological system (SES) to manage its resilience to extreme events is dependent on the efficacy of governance actors across many scales, jurisdictions, and problem domains. The Lake Champlain Basin (LCB) SES can be characterized as a complex adaptive system — comprised of interacting actors, processes, and structural components that operate at various spatial and temporal scales. In the LCB, social and environmental processes (e.g., stormwater management, agricultural intensification, precipitation fluctuations) are adversely affecting water quality, creating impaired rivers and streams, and producing harmful algal blooms. While governments at the federal, state, and local scales play critical roles in addressing water quality issues in the LCB, non-governmental organizations and businesses also have key roles in managing water quality. Further, the Vermont Clean Water Act has empowered nascent watershed-scale groups to plan, implement, and manage interventions to improve water quality as well. Collectively, these organizations and institutions form a network of water governance, the shape of which can affect the ability of the SES to plan for and react to, extreme events. At the University of Vermont, researchers in the National Science Foundation-funded Basin Resilience to Extreme Events (BREE) program are working to build a series of integrated, coupled models to better understand how governance, hydrology, economics, and land use interact to affect water quality, ecological function, and human well-being in the LCB. This paper presents an adaptive agent-based model of the multi-scale, multiplex governance network in the Missisquoi Watershed, located within the LCB. Using this model, we explore how network structure, institutional rules, and resource allocations across three action arenas alter incentives for land managers and affect water quality in the LCB. Our results suggest that water quality and SES resilience are reduced as a result of spatiotemporal misalignment between policy objectives, expectations, and biophysical processes.

URLhttp://www.lcbp.org/water-environment/data-monitoring/lake-champlain-research-conference/
Status: 
Published
Attributable Grant: 
BREE
Grant Year: 
Year2
Acknowledged VT EPSCoR: 
Ack-Yes