Journal Article

The Missing Piece of the Puzzle: How Different Water-related Public Concerns Contribute to Water Governance in China

Shen, Chen, Yuan, Zhihang

2024

Overview

Public participation is crucial to improving the performance of water governance systems, especially in a governance model dominated by a top-down hierarchical structure. Public concerns, as a vital form of public participation, have been acknowledged as an essential component in contributing to water governance. However, few studies explore the varying effects of diverse public concerns in leading to different water governance outcomes. This study addresses this gap by exploring the direct and indirect effects of water-related public concerns on water pollution control and governments’ pollution mitigating actions, using citizens’ water-related posts crawled from China’s social media. Results show that public water-related concerns contribute to water governance both through its direct effects on reducing water pollution and indirect effects by promoting policy actions. Specifically, the concerns related to water pollution hazards , water pollution monitoring , prevention products , and water pollution control measures have more positive impacts on water pollution reduction compared to other types of concern. Meanwhile, public concerns demonstrate stronger effects in triggering economic-related and infrastructure-related water pollution mitigation actions. This study provides nuanced insights to understand the role of public participation in improving water governance, the findings of which are insightful to enhance accountability of water governance systems through a bottom-up approach.

• Publisher: Springer US,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: accountability / Aquatic Pollution / China / Citizen participation / Community Participation / Earth and Environmental Science / Ecology / Environment / Environmental hazards / Environmental Management / Environmental Policy / Forestry Management / governance / Hazard mitigation / Humans / issues and policy / Nature Conservation / Pollution control / Pollution monitoring / Pollution prevention / Public Opinion / Public participation / Public waters / Waste Water Technology / Water / Water governance / Water Management / Water monitoring / Water pollution / Water Pollution - legislation & jurisprudence / Water Pollution - prevention & control / Water Pollution Control / Water pollution measurements / Water pollution prevention / Water Supply - legislation & jurisprudence