Keynote Speaker Dr. Bruce Stiftel on adaptive governance and water management

Listen to Dr. Bruce Stiftel's entire presentation and questions from the audience

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What, exactly, is adaptive governance? According to Dr. Bruce Stiftel and John T. Scholz, co-editors of Adaptive Governance and Water Conflict: New Institutions for Collaborative Planning, adaptive governance is, '…a new generation of governance institutions for resolving collective action problems that occur between different types of resource users.' In the case of water, Stiftel and Scholz explain that new water conflicts between stakeholders necessitate innovative approaches to policy making and changes in water management institutions. Court Gould is a member of LGA’s Board of Directors and is the Director of Sustainable Pittsburgh, an organization that affects decision-making processes in order to integrate economic prosperity, social equity, and environmental quality in the region’s development. Court introduced Keynote Speaker Dr. Bruce Stiftel, and identified the issues involved in water management, including fragmentation, technology, cooperation, political will, and best practices.

Dr. Bruce Stiftel shared his experiences in Florida, a region with great water access challenges and history of contention over water. Stiftel noted that the planet is 75% water and each of us is 60% water. 'Anything that is that ubiquitous in our world, in our cells, and all the life around us is going to touch an enormous number of the things we do, the policies we set, the institutions that we have,' Stiftel declared, as he begin explaining the many uses of water and the different agencies and stakeholders that interact and conflict over its management and use. He cited examples from his home state of Florida to illustrate the context for discussions of adaptive governance.

Water management in Florida needed new, innovative approaches, which became apparent when conflicts over the Everglades region were heating up. The region spreads across county and watershed lines, and the responsibilities and management issues facing the stakeholders in the Everglades first inspired regional conflict assessment and subsequent discussions. Stiftel presented two examples of Florida regions attempting to overcome challenges to adaptive governance where overuse and degradation of watersheds were at issue: one in the Tampa Bay area where the road to regionalization was rough, and one in East Central Florida where neutral facilitators helped to smoothly mediate cooperation.

Techniques of conflict resolution to balance the interests of stakeholders are incorporated in efforts to adapt government. Facilitating conflict naturally produces challenges to cooperation and communication. Dr. Stiftel presented five challenges to adaptive governance that were identified by the contributors to the study of water management in Florida, which help explain that the concept of adaptive governance is in its early stages and that these challenges are 'key to creating successful second-order institutions capable of adaptive governance.'

Time: 1 hr 23 min 15 sec