Water policy reform and innovation: A systematic review

• Published in: Environmental science & policy Vol. 38; pp. 263 - 271
• Main Authors: Moore, Michele-Lee, von der Porten, Suzanne, Plummer, Ryan, Brandes, Oliver, Baird, Julia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier Ltd 01.04.2014; Elsevier
• Subjects: Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied ecology; Biological and medical sciences; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Policy innovation; Social innovation; Systematic review; Water governance; Water policy; Policy innovation; Systematic review; Water policy; Water governance; Social innovation; Policy; Environment impact; Water resource management; Review
• ISSN: 1462-9011; 1873-6416; 1873-6416
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2014.01.007

•We conduct a systematic review of recent water policy reform literature on innovation.•We examine how innovation is defined by water policy reform scholars.•We develop a typology of water policy innovations.•Conditions for supporting or hindering water policy innovation processes are described. A growing need for innovation in water policy is increasingly recognized within water policy and governance scholarship, but the types of innovation and changes being considered or undertaken, and the conditions that enable or hinder those changes remain unclear. A systematic review of water policy reform literature was undertaken to investigate how innovation is defined in this area of scholarship and the enabling conditions or barriers shaping the innovation process. The findings of the review demonstrated that the mainstream water policy reform scholarship that examines innovation is limited. A small portion of the water policy reform literature that addresses innovation considers different types of policy changes as innovative. Therefore, the results are used to propose a typology of water policy innovations. Furthermore, the results demonstrated that preliminary knowledge about the role of policy entrepreneurs, networks, social learning, adaptive approaches, and niche experiments in the innovation process emerge in a sub-set of the water policy reform literature.