Research projects

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Conflict Nexus
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PhD 1: Multi-level assessment of water stress and institutional dynamics in the water-climate-conflict nexus »

River Politics
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PhD 2: The politics of river basin closures »

Water and Migration
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PhD 3: Water scarcity and migration in East Africa »

Drought Mitigation
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PhD 4: Rainwater harvesting, storage and use in mitigating drought emergencies in semiarid environments »

Urban Water
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PhD 5: Managing urban water demand across multiple spatio-temporal scales »

EU Water Law
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PhD 6: The European Union as an innovator in water governance paradigms. The case of sources, patterns and effects from the Water Framework Directive »

Knowledge co-production
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PhD 7: From participation to co-production of socio-hydrological knowledge »

Water and Mining
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PhD 8: Water/mining paradigms and the politics of naturalizing water overabundance: a comparative study of extractive industries’ political-material construction of flooding and drainage problems »

Water Consultancies
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PhD 9: Consultancy firms and the circulation of policy paradigms: roles, responsibilities and impacts »

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PhD 10: Emerging re-commoning water governance practices as a response to austerity crises »

Governance Models
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PhD 11: Assessing the sustainability of water governance systems in global comparison  »

Informal Markets
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PhD 12: Understanding the evolution of informal water markets in Eastern Africa *THIS POSITION HAS ALREADY BEEN FILLED »

Urban Governance
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PhD 13: Integrating patterns of urban water governance in Southeast Asia »

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PhD 14: Integrity, infrastructure and water sub-sector reform: comparing large scale irrigation and urban water supply in India and Indonesia »

Water Finance
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The boundaries, names and designations used on this map do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the NEWAVE Project concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Every effort is made to ensure this map is free of errors but there is no warranty the map or its features are either spatially or temporally accurate or fit for a particular use.

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 (PPP) 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.


What are the most important contemporary water-human problematiques?

ESRs 1 to 5 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.


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

ESRs 6 to 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.


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.