Supervisor

Gernot Stöglehner, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2613-1079

Content

This PhD-project aims at analyzing options and limitations of strategic planning approaches to enable sustainable transformations of industrialized riverine landscapes with a focus on synergies and trade-offs between land uses included in the WEF-nexus framework. The PhD-project will include action research methods.

Skills and Qualifications

  • Required: Master or other equivalent university degree in spatial planning, landscape planning, environmental planning or geography
  • Desirable: skills in GIS-based data analysis, experience with qualitative and quantitative social science methods, proficient language use in German (because of action research) and English
 

 

Introduction/background

Catchments and river basins are arenas of various, often conflicting land uses and protective interests, particularly regarding the interrelationships of water energy, and food systems conceptually framed by the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus. Catchments and river basins are regional entities usually without formal territorial authorities to be in charge. Levels of government and administration typically do not fit the environmentally relevant scales, resulting in externalities, inefficiencies and spill-overs. Hence, management approaches to catchments and river basins have been widely discussed as a means of responding to problems of spatial fit. While there is substantive research on related water governance regimes, there is a research gap concerning the modes of coordinating different land use interests in river basins as well as corresponding planning approaches with respect to the water-energy-food-nexus.

Main objective/research question/hypothesis

This PhD-topic aims at analysing options and limitations of strategic planning approaches to enable sustainable transformation of industrialized riverine landscapes. More specifically the objectives of the topic are:

  • assessing existing governance structures in catchments and river basins,
  • finding pathways of effectively coordinating land uses characteristic for the WEF-nexus as well as respective stakeholders,
  • analysing the benefits and trade-offs of strategic planning approaches to manage the interactions of water, energy and food -systems specific for industrialized riverine landscapes,
  • improving the institutional fit of government levels with river basins as ecosystems.

Research results are supposed to contribute to the institutional design of catchment-based planning processes and to better understand interests, concepts and values of stakeholders in industrialized riverine landscapes related to the WEF-nexus.

Approach/methods and time frame

The conceptual framework of this PhD-topic builds on the water governance model of Bressers and Kuks (2013) and on a heuristic for the WEF-nexus developed by Dalla Fontana et al. (2021). The water governance model of Bressers and Kuks (2013) includes five key features of catchment-oriented governance, i.e. (1) levels and scales, (2) actors, (3) problem perceptions, (4) strategies and instruments, (5) resources and organisation of implementation. The heuristic by Dalla Fontana et al. (2021) comprises the material aspect of the nexus, its geographical context, temporal dimensions and the nexus stakeholders.

The institutional analysis based on these frameworks entails the following methods:

  • Qualitative literature and document analysis
  • (Expert) Interviews with key stakeholders
  • Action research in a regional case study
  • Upscaling of case study findings

This PhD-topic is widely flexible in terms of the study site within the Danube Region as long as land use interests relating to the WEF-nexus play a substantial role in the catchment or river basin. The PhD-project is scheduled to run for 48 months. It is organized around an action research process in a regional case study starting around month 18 and lasting until month 36.