NEWAVE will train 15 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs), who will be enrolled in PhD programmes, through a systematic approach that includes diagnosis, analysis, assessment and actionability and is based on rigorous environmental social science training and research.

The research component of this training network will follow the Problématiques-Paradigms-Patterns (3Ps) heuristic framework built around 3 overarching and interrelated research questions (RQ) that address the fundamental dimensions of water governance related to the dialectical socio-environmental relationship between problématiques, paradigms and patterns of governance.

Problématiques

What are the most important contemporary water-human problematiques?

ESRs 1, 3, 5, and 7 will collectively develop a diagnostic framework for the identification of the major water problématiques looking at syndromes, symptoms, drivers and causes of human-water crises. Individually the different ESR projects will focus on five key problématiques.

• ESR01 - Multi-level assessment of water stress and institutional dynamics in the water-climate-conflict nexus
• ESR03 - Water scarcity and migration in East Africa
• ESR05 - Managing urban water demand across multiple spatio-temporal scales
• ESR07 - From participation to co-production of socio-hydrological knowledge

Paradigms

How do paradigms arise, circulate and impact water governance applications?

ESRs 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, and 10 will engage with the paradigmatic ideational underpinnings of governance approaches, making it possible to understand why approaches are advocated, and how the circulation of ideas about governance works. Individually the different ESRs projects will focus on 5 key cases related with paradigms creation, diffusion and impact.

• ESR02 - Multi-level water allocation and governance in the Segura River Basin
• ESR04 - Rainwater harvesting, storage and use in mitigating drought emergencies in semiarid environments
• ESR06 - The European Union as an innovator in water governance paradigms. The case of sources, patterns and effects from the Water Framework Directive
• ESR08 - Water/mining paradigms and the politics of naturalizing water overabundance: a comparative study of extractive industries’ political-material construction of flooding and drainage problems
• ESR09 - Consultancy firms and the circulation of policy paradigms: roles, responsibilities and impacts
• ESR10 - Emerging re-commoning water governance practices as a response to austerity crises

Patterns

What patterns of governance are prevailing in the global water governance arena and what are their outcomes?

ESRs 11 to 15 will conduct research on how different institutional arrangements and patterns in water governance form and perform. Individually the different ESR projects will focus on 5 key cases related to different modes and patterns of governance in a variety of cases on different scales.

• ESR11 - Assessing the sustainability of water governance systems in global comparison
• ESR12 - Understanding the evolution of informal water markets in Eastern Africa
• ESR13 - Integrating patterns of urban water governance in Southeast Asia
• ESR14 - Integrity, infrastructure and water sub-sector reform: comparing large scale irrigation and urban water supply in India and Indonesia
• ESR15 - Financing drinking water services in rural Eastern Africa