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• Social and biophysical indicators can be integrated for river basin diagnostics. • Indicator condition, target and influence provides strategic management synergies. • Indicator networks are constructed from influence scoring by stakeholder groups. • Indicator networks inform enabling pathways for stakeholder engagement. • Collaborative engagement broadens perspectives for better environmental outcomes. River basin governance has become increasingly challenged in many river basins around the world. At heart is the poor understanding of governance performance and its interaction with biophysical restoration targets. This paper aims to improve the Murray-Darling Basin governance for better environmental outcomes by understanding the interactions between governance performance indicators and biophysical indicators. A diagnostic framework consisting of social indicators (Collaboration , Leadership , Institutions and Learning) and biophysical indicators (River Flows , Water Quality , Biodiversity and Species Recovery) was used to estimate condition and target for each indicator from a range of stakeholder groups representing different interests and perspectives. In addition, stakeholders also measured synergistic effects of indicator progress towards target on other indicators using strength of indicator interaction scores. A network analysis of indicator condition and interaction scores was used to determine a composite enabling pathway to suggest stakeholder contributing roles to polycentric governance. Leadership and its role in regulation, compliance and operating rules is a recurring challenge mentioned by multiple stakeholder groups, requiring clarification of roles and subsidiarity decision-making through enhanced collaboration and institutional reform. The enabling pathway proposes collaborative learning by assigning co-implementation priorities based on diagnostics rather than stakeholder specific identified key challenges. This novel approach offers a tangible way for developing sectorised stakeholder engagement strategies where participation is conceived as active collaboration towards decision-making and co-implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The North Vam Nao scheme represents a hybrid governance paradigm. • The scheme is characterised by the participatory and hierarchical approaches for its irrigation and flood management. • Collaborative learning and integration of knowledge among stakeholders take place across vertical and horizontal linkages. • The scheme fosters both 'integrative' and 'adaptive' components in its long-term water governance strategy. Conventional state policies for intensive agricultural production in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta (VMD) prescribe the expansion of large-scale water engineering infrastructure. In the upper part of the VMD, compounding environmental challenges presented by climate change, hydropower development upstream, and localised development policies have added greater pressures to rural societies, demanding various governance approaches to deal with change. So far, considerable attention has been devoted to policy narratives of how the bureaucratic approach shapes flood management delta-wide, but little is known about the relevant shift towards adaptive governance at the local level. The analysis presented here is based on qualitative data gathered from fieldworks and desk reviews and argues that the North Vam Nao scheme is an exemplary case for policy transformation in the VMD. A hybrid governance paradigm that is characterised by the participatory and hierarchical approaches allows for the shared learning and interactions of knowledge vertically and horizontally among stakeholders. The study presents nuanced implications of the approach in incorporating both 'integrative' and 'adaptive' components into a long-term water governance strategy, which would serve as a two-pronged contribution to effectively manage environmental uncertainties facing the VMD. It also advocates for the legitimacy of the approach to be institutionalised and widely adopted across the Mekong floodplains and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social-ecological systems of the Vietnamese Mekong Delta (VMD) are under stress driven by accelerating impacts of climate change, upstream hydropower development, and local flood management policies. These combined complexities have prompted the rural societies to make significant efforts to adapt to changing conditions. While local adaptation represents diverse patterns of communication and interactions across the social sectors, far less attention has been given to how these learning processes occur in the rural communities of practice. This paper attempts to delineate the learning dynamics in which farming households are key practitioners. The mixed methods approach that guides data collection includes focus group discussions, in-depth interviews with key informants and household surveys. The analysis suggests that social learning plays a significant role in facilitating the adoption and dissemination of experiential and experimental knowledge across geographical boundaries. This study highlights important aspects of households' social learning system characterized by informal networks with various forms of bonding and bridging relationships. These learning patterns suggest that informal communication is a dominant learning approach in the rural delta. This study contributes to advancing the theoretical and empirical knowledge of social learning and its policy implications for rural development in the VMD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most studies and influential agencies propose a shift to sustainability thinking and regard it as an important means of coordinating economic, social and environmental development. However, much less research focusses on conflicts over resources, the issue of asymmetrical power, and value-and-cultural conflicts behind the trajectories of sustainable development. For countries speeding up transitions such as China, it can be asked how and why might accelerating sustainability transitions through resettlement become a new utopia or a poverty trap? To examine the significance of this question for sustainability, we explore three development-induced displacement and resettlement (DIDR) programs in China: dam-induced resettlement, poverty-alleviation oriented relocation (including ecological migration) and agglomeration of villages. This research examines normative issues of Chinese policies for sustainability. We find that building sustainability via DIDR will not be as easy as projected and could lead to new poverty traps that disadvantage some groups of people, such as resettlees. We highlight three themes, the change of resettlees' financial conditions, land access and local governance, to explore how competition is skewed between resettlees and local governments while speeding up to pursue more ambitious goals. We find that with the increased pace of implementation of quick sustainability policies that power lies with local governments to the detriment of resettlees. DIDR can become a just governance tool to build sustainability, but only if there is sufficient agreement among all stakeholders on a transparent, accountable and collaborative approach. Without inclusion and equality in transitions, potential risks and challenges can eclipse sustainable development. [Display omitted] • Adopting resettlement to accelerate sustainability transitions is again in policy agenda of many countries and regions to advance social goals and modernity. • Resettlement can break up hierarchical social structures and could benefit previously disadvantaged people, such as women and the disabled. • In China, the increased pace of implementation of quick sustainability policies that power lies with local governments to the detriment of resettlees. • Building sustainability often requires trade-offs rather than win-win solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Proposed dam construction in the Lower Mekong Basin will considerably reduce fish catch and place heightened demands on the resources necessary to replace lost protein and calories. Additional land and water required to replace lost fish protein with livestock products are modelled using land and water footprint methods. Two main scenarios cover projections of these increased demands and enable the specific impact from the main stem dam proposals to be considered in the context of basin-wide hydropower development. Scenario 1 models 11 main stem dams and estimates a 4–7% increase overall in water use for food production, with much higher estimations for countries entirely within the Basin: Cambodia (29–64%) and Laos (12–24%). Land increases run to a 13–27% increase. In scenario 2, covering another 77 dams planned in the Basin by 2030 and reservoir fisheries, projections are much higher: 6–17% for water, and 19–63% for land. These are first estimates of impacts of dam development on fisheries and will be strongly mediated by cultural and economic factors. The results suggest that basic food security is potentially at a high risk of disruption and therefore basin stakeholders should be fully engaged in strategies to offset these impacts. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are useful conservation tools for balancing the complex social-ecological interactions and demands within a given marine area. Often designing, reviewing, and assessing existing MPAs can be a complicated task often based on patchy ecological data, biases towards certain stakeholder groups, and static snapshots of current information. Taking a social-ecological resilience approach, this study has developed an innovative way of using fuzzy-set multi-criteria evaluations in GIS modelling to integrate existing ecological data for a marine area with information from a diverse set of stakeholders to gain an understanding of the overlaps between social and ecological assets within an MPA. Adaptive management frameworks were considered by exploring stakeholder feedback in regards to the current spatial plan and using a social-ecological spatially informed Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) analysis to create a current snapshot of the MPA's vulnerability. The BBN was then used to predict how climate change may affect sensitive habitats and demonstrates the increase of vulnerability for both habitats and marine species when allowing fishing pressure to occur across the entire MPA. A series of decision-making maps were created that integrated all of this information. Using this current and predicted social-ecological spatial information about an MPA, can assist decision-makers and the local community by giving them the tools to make informed decisions about how to better design an MPA that meets and supports long-term social-ecological resilience. [Display omitted] • Assessing existing or designing MPAs is complex task based on current snapshots. • Fuzzy-set multi-criteria evaluations integrated social-ecological spatial data. • Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) was created based on spatial information. • The BBN predicted how climate change and fishing pressure increased vulnerability. • Final decision-making maps integrated social-ecological and vulnerability data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Irrigation efficiency is more than a performance indicator or water-savings panacea. • Managing irrigation efficiency supports water, food and energy goals. • Insufficient understanding of irrigation efficiency may impede policy goals. • The meanings and use of irrigation efficiency depend on spatial scale and viewpoint. • A matrix of scales and dimensions is proposed to explore irrigation efficiency. An effective placement of irrigation efficiency in water management will contribute towards meeting the pre-eminent global water challenges of our time such as addressing water scarcity, boosting crop water productivity and reconciling competing water needs between sectors. However, although irrigation efficiency may appear to be a simple measure of performance and imply dramatic positive benefits, it is not straightforward to understand, measure or apply. For example, hydrological understanding that irrigation losses recycle back to surface and groundwater in river basins attempts to account for scale, but this generalisation cannot be readily translated from one location to another or be considered neutral for farmers sharing local irrigation networks. Because irrigation efficiency (IE) motives, measures, effects and technologies play out at different scales for different people, organisations and purposes, and losses differ from place to place and over time, IE is a contested term, highly changeable and subjective. This makes generalisations for science, management and policy difficult. Accordingly, we propose new definitions for IE and irrigation hydrology and introduce a framework, termed an 'irrigation efficiency matrix', comprising five spatial scales and ten dimensions to understand and critique the promises, pitfalls and paradoxes of IE and to unlock its utility for addressing contemporary water challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marine spatial planning (MSP) has been put forward as a way to more comprehensively manage marine environments by balancing human demands and protecting areas that support ecosystem function. Given the recent motivations for countries to adopt large-scale marine spatial planning approaches, ensuring these plans are grounded in social-ecological resilience theories is essential for long-term success. Drawing upon recent academic attention from a range of disciplinary areas, this review explores current practices and applied examples of published case studies from around the world that have integrated social and ecological spatial information using GIS techniques. This review intended to use these case studies to guide directions of future MSP research that considers social-ecological resilience theories. Five overall themes were uncovered. First, extractive uses, such as fisheries, were often given priority in MSP processes, which even though important, may undermine the social resilience of coastal communities by not supporting the diversity of non-extractive economies. Second, the quality of ecological spatial data used in the studies varied greatly, often with little consideration of how ongoing human demands may influence long-term ecological resilience. Thrid, many GIS techniques were used to integrate social and ecological data including: descriptive maps, site prioritisation techniques, and predictive modelling. Lastly, only a small number of studies considered cross-ecosystem influences and only two incorporated potential climate change impacts on social institutions and marine ecosystems. Overall, there is a need for progressing GIS predictive modelling techniques to assess and link the responses of social and ecological systems to MSP solutions in order to support long-term social-ecological resilience. • Marine spatial planning (MSP) needs to consider social and ecological resilience. • Social resilience is supported by spatially representing a diversity of economies. • Ecological resilience is spatially protecting areas based on ecological principles. • Using GIS predictive modelling can assess spatial linkages that maintain resilience. • MSP needs to consider forecasting climate change impacts on a proposed spatial plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Decision-making dynamics strongly influence total household income. • Women's dominant role in decision-making relates to small livestock and irrigation. • Women are adopting high-value crops, intensifying production and diversifying income. • Households make trade-offs and allocate labour to maximize total household income. • Trade-offs coupled with small plot sizes may produce sub-optimal water productivity. Abstract Irrigation has been promoted as a strategy to reduce poverty and improve livelihoods in southern Africa. Households' livelihood strategies within small-scale irrigation schemes have become increasingly complex and diversified. Strategies consist of farm income from rain-fed and irrigated cropping as well as livestock and an increasing dependence on off-farm income. The success of these strategies depends on the household's ability to make decisions about how to utilize its' financial, labour, land and water resources. This study explores the dynamics of decision-making in households on-farm household income within six small-scale irrigation schemes, across three southern African countries. Household survey data (n = 402) was analyzed using ordered probit and ordinary least squares regression. Focus group discussions and field observations provided qualitative data on decision-making in the six schemes. We found strong support for the notion that decision-making dynamics strongly influence total household income. Households make trade-offs between irrigation, dryland, livestock and off-farm work when they allocate their labour resources to maximize household income; as opposed to maximizing the income from any individual component of their livelihood strategy, such as irrigation. Combined with the impact of the small plot size of irrigated land, this is likely to result in sub-optimal benefits from expensive investments in irrigation infrastructure. Policy-makers must consider this when developing and implementing new policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A critical requirement in assessing progress towards global biodiversity targets is improving our capacity to measure changes in biodiversity. Global biodiversity declined between 2000 and 2010, and there are indications that the decline was greater in freshwater than in terrestrial or marine systems. However, the data, tools and methods available during that decade were inadequate to reliably quantify this decline. Recent advances in freshwater monitoring make a global assessment now close to becoming feasible. Here we identify priorities for freshwater biodiversity assessment for 2020 and 2030, based on the Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBV) framework. We identify 22 priority activities for 2020 under three of the EBV classes (species populations, community composition, and ecosystem structure), which include: a globally systematic approach to collecting and assessing species data, collating existing and new data within global platforms, coordinated effort towards mapping wetland extent at high spatial resolution, linking in-situ data to modelling across regions, and mobilising citizen science for the collection and verification of data. Accomplishing these will allow the state of global biodiversity to be assessed according to a Red List Index with expanded geographic and taxonomic cover, an improved freshwater Living Planet Index with a greater number and phylogenetic range of species, measures of alpha and beta diversity, and globally-consistent estimates of wetland extent. To assess variables in the other EBV classes (genetic composition, species traits, and ecosystem function) we identify 15 priorities, which include development of environmental DNA methods, species-traits databases, eco-informatics and modelling over the next 15 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]