Problem and Knowledge Gap: Addressing the challenges of land and water transformations in Dutch sandy soils requires a balanced allocation of scarce resources and the identification of win-win solutions to enhance multiple aspects of landscape quality. These complex issues involve a diverse range of stakeholders, each with unique perspectives and power positions. Stakeholders within a landscape depend on each other for ecosystem services, such as water and water quality, the trading of products and services, and societal connections. They also interact with and rely on larger-scale entities like provinces, regional water authorities, and ministries. Ideally, governance arrangements should leverage these spatial and scale dependencies to support desired landscape transformations.
While the literature documents novel governance arrangements with potential relevance for Dutch sand landscapes (e.g., the small wins framework), these require further specification and empirical testing with societal stakeholders. This work aims to create a governance action framework that outlines the potential effectiveness of governance arrangements for initiating landscape transformation in relation to societal and political conditions.
Research Questions:
- Which governance arrangements have the theoretical potential to transform Dutch sand landscapes towards a more resilient state, considering the spatial and scale dependencies among actors within and beyond the sand regions?
- Based on a thorough stakeholder analysis and subsequent evaluation, what are the strengths and weaknesses of the current governance arrangements in Dutch sandy soil regions? How effectively do they stimulate concerted efforts towards area-oriented decision-making, and which elements need the most improvement?
- Which novel governance arrangements are suitable for Dutch sand landscapes, and what lessons can be derived from co-designing these arrangements with stakeholders about their potential to initiate transition pathways towards more resilient landscapes?
By addressing these questions, we aim to develop a framework of governance action perspectives that can effectively guide the transformation of Dutch sand landscapes, enhancing their resilience and sustainability.