GENERAL INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1.1

ARE WE ABLE TO ADAPT WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN A FAST MOVING WORLD?

Bob Harris

Strategy Director, Catchment Science Centre, Kroto Research Institute, University of Sheffield, Broad Lane, Sheffield, S3 7HQ, UK

1.1.1 INTRODUCTION

Our environment is a complex system of connections between natural processes and the social pressures that disrupt them. A changing climate and an increasingly global market gives rise to uncertainties in sustaining the ecosystem services we currently enjoy and, reinforced by the newer environmental European Directives, it means that we now face a challenge of considering the whole system rather than continue to manage its individual components. This challenge requires a different way of interacting with our environment based on an understanding of the critical linkages in the system that drive the services we require from it, at a scale that is commensurate with how society works. To do this we need to develop and use knowledge, which is a combination of local experience, wisdom and scientific understanding. The scale that is increasingly being adopted across the world is that of the river catchment, considered to be the most appropriate for the necessary building of collaborations between multiple stakeholders and the development of capacity to deal with the issues identified.

1.1.2 THE ISSUE

The development of river basin management has progressed through three broad phases in Western Europe and, although the time-scales may differ slightly, this is broadly the case throughout most of the developed world. These may be categorised as: a sanitisation provision phase (1850s to 1950s), when the emphasis was on clean water supplies and safe sewage disposal; a pollution control stage (1950s to today), where the emphasis has been on water quality improvement through the control of polluting discharges (point source pollution), and we are currently moving into a sustainable development phase, where there is a dawning realisation that an holistic approach to environmental issues is necessary to meet sustainable development aspirations.

It is increasingly evident that the management of water and land cannot continue as isolated activities divorced from each other or other aspects of life. Our environment is intimately connected to social, economic and political factors at several scales, ranging from international legislation and the policies that flow from them to the choices made by people. The management of water resources and rural land for food production are just two elements of an interdependent web of environmental, social and economic components that form a highly complex and interconnected system. This system delivers a whole range of ecosystem services, which include many aspects that we currently find difficult to value and thus compare. Changes in one component can cascade through the system to result in a series of synergistic and conflicting changes elsewhere. On top of this are the uncertainties brought about by global changes in climate, markets and society.

This new realisation that we live in a complex, integrated and changing world puts our existing management concepts and structures for the environment under severe stress. What was suitable for addressing earlier priorities is not appropriate now. Indeed our current governance and management systems, which have evolved in a compartmentalised way over the years, are not "fit for purpose" to meet the challenges ahead. There is a need to adapt our management concepts and practices and explore more appropriate model(s) and at which scales they should be applied. A fundamental question therefore arises, what model of water and/or environmental management is best, and where, and can we adapt sufficiently to accept the changes required? This paper considers some of these issues in the context of the UK and the challenges currently facing the new administration.

1.1.3 THE BACKGROUND FOR NEW MODELS OF MANAGEMENT

It is useful to appreciate the background to the current governance arrangements. The current UK model for water management has evolved from one that in 1970 was organised around local (town/village) management of drinking water and sanitation with some river basin scale administration of selected strategic functions, such as fisheries management, by River (Purification) Boards and Authorities. The amalgamation of all water-related functions at the level of river basins took place in 1974 followed by a further scaling up of activities relating to overall water quality and water resources in 1985, through the privatisation of the water industry and the formation of the National Rivers Authority. The consolidation of more environmental management regulation to form a centralised system has continued with the creation in 1997 of the Environment Agency). Over the past 13 years it has become larger and increasingly rigid with strengthened links to central government (Defra) although, apart from flood risk management, separated from local government. During this 40-year transition environmental legislation and the associated regulatory controls have increased significantly. However, the legislation has developed in a piecemeal way such that the focus is on discrete activities or environmental areas (waste management, water quantity, water quality, groundwater etc). The result is that we manage the environment in a compartmentalised way driven by discrete legislative objectives translated into regulatory goals. It is difficult to join up these objectives at either national policy or local delivery levels, as we have become increasingly target driven, the targets based on the legislative silos.

In the UK little connects the policy-making level with the implementation activities being carried out in isolation at local levels, resulting in a two-way lack of communication. This lack of vertical integration leads to policy failures due to disconnects between the levels, and also to poor coordination of local-scale activities. In addition the policy connectivity across sectors, for example conservation, water quality, agriculture and flood risk is not well integrated. Current policies are largely directed at single components of the environment, supporting discrete legislative requirements, and while there is an increasing awareness of the need for developing better synergy there is slow progress. So an environmental management system has developed that is top-down, inflexible, compartmentalised and not well integrated within and between different scales or levels of activity and governance.

Perhaps the biggest barrier to a more integrated approach is a disconnect between environmental policy at local and national government levels. Although local authorities administer spatial planning controls, these are largely disengaged from environmental policy, and local authority involvement in a...