Epistemic community in transboundary river regime: a case study in the Mekong River Commission regarding mainstream hydropower development.

Despite the importance of transboundary water management, cooperation mechanisms are limited, especially in the case of Mekong River basin where environmental and social aspects are threatened by recent anthropogenic pressures like hydropower development. Existing transboundary mechanism such as the Mekong River Commission (MRC) is challenged to facilitate the cooperation between riparian states. An epistemic community (EC) is considered to effectively influence international governance and is studied as part of transboundary river regimes. The existence of an MRC EC is part of that regime but understanding about its characteristics is yet limited. This research aims to fill in the gap by unraveling the main features of the EC in relation to hydropower development. We analyze shared causal beliefs and policy goals that developed in the EC framework of Haas applying literature review and semi-structured interviews of experts. Results show that the community experts share causal beliefs and policy goals only to a limited extent while disagreeing on many aspects. It resembles a "disciplined" or "professional" group rather than an EC. This suggests that the knowledge factor has not gained proper influence and attention in the region, resulting in incoherent policy advice leading to policymakers developing policies based on incomplete and fragmented knowledge. The role of the MRC in the decision-making process could become more relevant if it would facilitate the development of an EC. Bringing key stakeholders including policymakers and experts into a platform where policy goals and causal beliefs are facilitated to reach possible consensus is recommended. Narrowing the science-policy gap while acknowledging differences in interests and policy objectives is crucial to reach a sustainable transboundary management of the Mekong River given its rapid development, especially on hydropower.

Analyzing the data-rich-but-information-poor syndrome in Dutch water management in historical perspective.

Water quality monitoring has developed over the past century from an unplanned, isolated activity into an important discipline in water management. This development also brought about a discontent between information users and information producers about the usefulness and usability of information, in literature often referred to as the data-rich-but-information-poor syndrome. This article aims to gain a better understanding of this issue by studying the developments over some five decades of Dutch national water quality monitoring, by analyzing four studies in which the role and use of information are discussed from different perspectives, and by relating this to what is considered in literature as useful information. The article concludes that a "water information gap" exists which is rooted in different mutual perceptions and expectations between the two groups on what useful information is, that can be overcome by improving the communication. Such communication should be based on willingness to understand and deal with different mindframes and should be based on a methodology that guides and structures the interactions.