| Publication type: | Doctoral thesis |
| Title: | Flexibility through hybridity : governance arrangements for sustainable urban water systems |
| Authors: | Pakizer, Katrin |
| Advisors / Reviewers: | Stauffacher, Michael Maurer, Max Lieberherr, Eva Fischer, Manuel Betz, Regina |
| DOI: | 10.3929/ethz-b-000554583 |
| Extent: | 156 |
| Issue Date: | 2022 |
| Publisher / Ed. Institution: | ETH Zürich |
| Language: | English |
| Subjects: | Urban water governance; Urban water; Socio-technical transition; Policy instrument mix; Policy sequencing; Bottom-up transition; Entrepreneurial actor |
| Subject (DDC): | 333: Economics of land and resources |
| Abstract: | Conventional large-scale water infrastructures in urban areas are increasingly under pressure to transition toward more flexible and sustainable modes to cope with the major challenges of the 21st century. Climate change and population growth coupled with increased urbanization will likely expand the demand for water services, which are already confronted with water scarcity due to hydro-climatic variability. On top of these challenges, ageing water supply and sanitation infrastructures are facing underinvestment and shrinking subsidies. Integrating decentralized water technologies that are multi-functional and fit-for-purpose could enable a more efficient treatment of resources and diversify water assets, creating mixed-scale or hybrid water systems. Although such technological solutions already exist, the implementation rate remains low, as the transition of infrastructures also necessitates institutional change, altering, e.g., user practices, regulations, organizational structures and markets. As institutions provide stability and regularity to urban water infrastructures and their management, however, they are not easily changed. Against this backdrop, this thesis investigates how shifts in urban water governance arrangements ¬– i.e. actor constellations, organizational structures, policies (instruments) and mechanisms – can overcome institutional inertia and steer infrastructure transitions. It examines how new actor constellations, altered or novel policy instruments and organizations support the integration of decentralized water technologies, enabling the development of more sustainable urban water infrastructures. Insights are drawn from four individual research papers, which are linked by the following overall research question that examines the different elements of urban water governance arrangements: how can urban water governance arrangements foster the implementation and operation of decentralized water technologies as part of hybrid infrastructures? As the papers follow different thematic priorities and associated sub-research questions, a plurality of conceptual approaches and methods is used, in addition to empirical cases. The papers mostly rely on qualitative methods, such as literature review, interviews, comparative case studies and process-tracing, besides one paper that applies the mixed-method of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). In order to open the “black box” of urban water governance arrangements, this thesis first looks more broadly at the link between governance arrangements and decentralized water technologies. By investigating alternative urban water governance arrangements for hybrid water systems that have already been implemented in OECD countries and emerging economies, it shows that there remains a strong reliance on established policy instruments, such as regulatory and economic measures, for introducing decentralized water technologies. However, as local actors play more central roles in the implementation (and operation) process of decentralized water technologies than in conventional urban water management (UWM), policymakers supplement traditional policy instruments with voluntary, informative and “collaboration-inducing” instruments. These mixes of different policy instruments, which are currently being used for operating decentralized or modular water technologies, are further examined in this thesis. The investigations show that policy instrument mixes with both substantive – i.e. regulative, economic and informational instruments ¬– and procedural instruments are key for successfully operating decentralized water technologies. Analyzing the interplay between procedural instruments, which activate mechanisms such as participation and user responsibility, with different substantive policy instruments provides valuable insights on the supportive role of procedural tools in policy instrument mixes to the policy literature. Moreover, this thesis also examines how these policy instrument mixes are intentionally sequenced over time, in order to enable bottom-up transition processes of transitioning urban water infrastructures. By conceptualizing two local bottom-up policy sequencing patterns, i.e. strategic and reactive, this thesis shows that the strategic sequencing of policies and policy instruments is particularly successful in addressing potential institutional barriers and accelerating transition processes. The conceptual framework for investigating bottom-up policy sequencing patterns links current work on policy instrument mixes in transition studies with the policy sequencing literature in political sciences, thereby contributing to both research fields. The use of supportive, i.e. economic and procedural instruments, and deployment policies, i.e. regulatory instruments, enabled the creation of a favorable environment plus high public and political support for decentralized water technologies. Entrepreneurial actors, such as water utilities, building companies and consultancies, play a key role in particular in initiating a transition process, as they shape policy sequences by facilitating meetings and collaborations between different actors and providing education and information. Other important actors are grassroots initiatives that push for the implementation of decentralized water technologies. This thesis focused on a housing cooperative in the canton of Geneva in Switzerland, which is a case crucial for illuminating bottom-up processes of social and technological innovation through grassroots initiatives. The strategies of activities of such initiatives have not been systematically described and investigated. Hence, this thesis uses the concept of entrepreneurial strategies and applies it to grassroots initiatives to investigate their activities for initiating transitions, thereby contributing conceptually to the grassroots initiative literature. In doing so, it shows that strategies are used in a non-linear order and that strategy choice is impacted by the conduciveness of the local context and the degree of fit between the new ideas and the existing institutions. By describing and analyzing governance practices in this multi-faceted manner, this thesis identifies opportunities and barriers for sustainable transitions of UWM. Overall, this thesis shows that urban governance arrangements integrate and operate decentralized water technologies as part of transitioning urban water infrastructures toward more sustainable modes by 1) using the whole portfolio of policy instruments by including procedural tools into instrument mixes that are 2) strategically sequenced throughout transition processes, which are 3) increasingly shaped by local actors, such as water utilities, housing cooperatives and technology end-users. |
| URI: | https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/handle/11475/27615 |
| License (according to publishing contract): | Licence according to publishing contract |
| Departement: | School of Management and Law |
| Appears in collections: | Publikationen School of Management and Law |
Files in This Item:
There are no files associated with this item.
Show full item record
Pakizer, K. (2022). Flexibility through hybridity : governance arrangements for sustainable urban water systems [Doctoral dissertation, ETH Zürich]. https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000554583
Pakizer, K. (2022) Flexibility through hybridity : governance arrangements for sustainable urban water systems. Doctoral dissertation. ETH Zürich. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000554583.
K. Pakizer, “Flexibility through hybridity : governance arrangements for sustainable urban water systems,” Doctoral dissertation, ETH Zürich, 2022. doi: 10.3929/ethz-b-000554583.
PAKIZER, Katrin, 2022. Flexibility through hybridity : governance arrangements for sustainable urban water systems. Doctoral dissertation. ETH Zürich
Pakizer, Katrin. 2022. “Flexibility through Hybridity : Governance Arrangements for Sustainable Urban Water Systems.” Doctoral dissertation, ETH Zürich. https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000554583.
Pakizer, Katrin. Flexibility through Hybridity : Governance Arrangements for Sustainable Urban Water Systems. ETH Zürich, 2022, https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000554583.
Items in DSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.