New Studies by Patrick Bitterman and Christopher Koliba Explore Water Governance in Vermont

Two new studies released by BREE researchers Patrick Bitterman, PhD and Christopher Koliba, PhD debut this month. "A Network Perspective on Multi-Scale Water Governance in the Lake Champlain Basin, Vermont," published in Ecology and Society, and "Engagement in Water Governance Action Situations in the Lake Champlain Basin," published in PLOS ONE take two similar but different looks at the Lake Champlain Basin (LCB) and examine how government action can improve the health of the watershed.

Dr. Patrick Bitterman is a former postdoctoral candidate with Vermont EPSCoR who is currently an Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Dr. Christopher Koliba served as the Associate Director of Vermont EPSCoR from 2021 to 2023 and is now the Edwin O. Stene Distinguished Professor of Public Administration at the University of Kansas. The research published this month presents work performed during the RII Track-1 Basin Resilience to Extreme Events in the Champlain Basis (BREE) project. Dr. Bitterman took a moment to answer some questions for us about these recent publications.

What did you hope to accomplish with this research?

The purpose of the the project was to understand the structure of the water governance network in the LCB. This includes how recent policy (e.g., Act 64) has affected how actors across the basin coordinate to address water quality challenges. This work is particularly relevant in the context of the Vermont Clean Water Service Delivery Act (Act 76), which aims to create a more polycentric governance system.

When did your research begin, and how long did it take?

Our thinking about this project began when I started my postdoc in 2017. However, the survey was sent out in the Fall of 2019. Analysis was slowed somewhat by the pandemic.


Christopher Koliba, PhD

What are some of the main conclusions your research draws?

We find that direct coordination among actors is largely a function of geographic proximity and issue homophily, meaning water governance actors are more likely to work with others that are nearby and care about the same issues as they do. We also show that actors tend to favor participating in similarly scoped forums at their spatial scale, that actors are less likely to participate in structured forums focused on agriculture, and that actors participate independently of others with whom they have pre-existing collaborative relationships. In addition, we find that in the case of the LCB, actor participation in issues related to water quality is misaligned with modeled sources of nutrient pollution. Specific to the LCB, our findings suggest that as the transformation of the governance system proceeds (with the implementation of Act 76), cross-scale and inter-watershed coordination must be regularized to maintain learning and innovation across the system as it pursues its clean water goals.

Do you expect to follow up on your findings yourself? If not, do you have hopes that others will build further on this research?

I hope to, yes. Now that our work is published, Chris Koliba and I are working on a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant proposal to study the clean water service providers and how their structures and function will change the water governance system in the LCB. We have previously been in touch with Agency of Natural Resources staff regarding our work, and we anticipate those relationships will grow in the future.

Now that you are no longer at UVM, are there any pieces of your research that "follow" you to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, or lessons that you will take with you?

Yes, absolutely. The agent-based modeling framework I created while at UVM (published in the Journal of Public Administration and Research Theory) has been a big part of my NSF-funded research in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, and we are also working on a similar network-based survey as well. Overall, the BREE/ESPCoR approach to interdisciplinary, team-based research has helped me to develop productive collaborations across multiple projects. While I wouldn't call it a "lesson", I learned a lot about how to do policy-relevant research, work with stakeholders and policymakers, and to do actionable science.

A Network Perspective on Multi-Scale Water Governance in the Lake Champlain Basin, Vermont: doi.org/10.5751/ES-14036-280144
Engagement in Water Governance Action Situations in the Lake Champlain Basin: doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282797