Dando, Nicole; (1999) Sustainability and Perceptions of Fair Water Resources Management: a case study of the Lark Valley, Suffolk. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

As socially and naturally imposed limits place water resources under greater pressure, the frequency of resource disputes will intensify. The emerging regulatory challenge is to mediate competing claims to water while taking account of conflicting decision criteria within the sustainability discourse. This thesis set out to explore the extent to which the objectives of sustainable and just water resource management strategies can be informed by an understanding of different perceptions of fairness among water abstractors, other interests groups and the environmental regulator. The normative dimensions of resource problems and solutions are underrepresented in the literature on water resources management and most work on equity and water operates with a predetermined position regarding the meaning of equitable allocation and management. There exists, therefore, a need for an understanding of local fairness norms for water, and fairness judgements held by stakeholders themselves. The main objective of the research was thus to determine what is fair water resources management, and to what extent are perceptions of fairness important in advancing sustainable water resources management? A qualitative and quantitative stakeholder analysis and catchment case study were employed to map competing claims on water in a small, rural water stressed catchment in East Anglia. The empirical study is contextualised in the drought events, regulatory change and new discourses influencing water management of 1989-1995. Analysis of attitudes to the regulator and to management strategies and support for different principles of water justice reveals the differing views of fair water management and expectations for water regulation which frame conflict and cooperation in the catchment. The thesis shows that as the environment has become a major player in water resource management: the notion of fairness as 'balance' (implicit in the regulation of water abstraction) has become contested, and the expectations for regulation more diverse.

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