Assessing the Robustness of Urban Water Systems with the Institutional Grammar

• In Event: Advances in Theories of the Policy Process

Abstract

Climate change and urban growth both pose grave challenges to current and future water supplies. Urban water systems are composed of both natural and social components, and are responsive to biophysical as well as politically and socially induced stressors. For example, the ‘Day Zero’ drought in Cape Town, South Africa, and the widespread lead contamination in Flint, Michigan’s water supply, both demonstrate how biophysical and social or political variables may interact to threaten water quantity or quality, and by extension, human health and prosperity. While extreme examples, these types of events are likely to become more commonplace in the coming decades as climate change exacerbates variability in weather patterns, and population growth and degrading water infrastructure place stress on urban water systems. Enhancing the sustainability of these integrated systems requires developing transdisciplinary knowledge of the dynamics of socio-ecological systems (SESs), as well as how alternative institutional arrangements shape the robustness of system performance.

Using the Robustness of Coupled Infrastructure Systems framework, this study examines four U.S. urban water management systems -- Atlanta, Indianapolis, Phoenix and Washington, D.C. -- to assess the robustness of institutional arrangements that govern how information is exchanged between regulators, water utilities, and the public. For this study, we define robustness as the ability of institutional configurations to preserve natural and social system outputs (water quality and quantity) despite variability in inputs. Recent research examining the institutional structure of water utilities in the U.S. has identified that variation in how governance is formally structured can impact water supply system performance. In particular, theoretical and empirical insights from punctuated equilibrium research suggest that formal mechanisms for information-exchange between water providers, regulators and users are critical components of system performance, as information flows are thought to be key for understanding how bureaucratic or hierarchical organizations respond (or fail to respond) to changing external conditions. Greater levels of institutional friction can impact these information flows and slow management or policy responses to changing external conditions, leading to punctuated over-reactions or errors. Using the Institutional Grammar tool developed by Crawford and Ostrom (1995) to analyze institutional statements related to information access, paired with hydrological data, elite interviews, and an analysis of trends in the public salience of water issues, we empirically examine the robustness of these systems, focusing on periods before and after policymakers enacted significant institutional changes.

Authors

• Aaron Deslatte, Indiana University Bloomington

• Madeline Yozwiak, Indiana University

• Laura Helmke-Long, Indiana University

• Elizabeth Koebele, University of Nevada, Reno

• Lauren Bartels, University of Nevada, Reno

• Margaret Garcia, ASU