What is transformative water governance?

Transformative water governance is about the ways in which societies fundamentally reassess their relationship with water. Zwarteveen explains: ‘Climate change, biodiversity loss and rising social inequality are all problems that are partly caused by how water has been managed in the past. These problems are partly expressed in hydrological changes: in periods of drought, salinisation, flooding and pollution.’

What does a different approach to water look like in practice?

Through the Chair in Transformative Water Governance, Zwarteveen will examine what ‘engaging differently with water’ actually means and how to do it. What do spatial planning and socio-economic development look like when it is recognised that water is scarce, or that rivers occasionally overflow their banks? Existing initiatives to manage water more carefully, sustainably and fairly provide the empirical basis for this research—for example in the ERC research project AQUIVERSE, in which Zwarteveen collaborates with organisations that seek to promote and support the collective management of groundwater.

Water as inspiration for transformation

As a professor, Zwarteveen brings her extensive knowledge of water, justice and governance to ongoing discussions on socio-ecological and climate justice, including within Geography, Spatial Planning and International Development Studies. ‘I want to use the insights from the ERC project to inform broader discussions about how to organise a more equitable and sustainable society, and what role science should play in that.’