Between a rock and a hard place: incompatible objectives at the heart of river basin planning?

Abstract

River Basin Management Planning (RBMP) is a policy that seeks to integrate multiple objectives for water bodies, that is enacted at multiple scales and through the collaboration of multiple stakeholders, using an adaptive management cycle. Insights from spatial planning and community planning literatures illustrate how many challenges are not particular to RBMP but are fundamental to strategic planning in modern society. The literatures draw attention to the institutional arrangements governing these complex collaborations. The emerging findings are a series of tensions that resonate with the wider literatures (such as between efficiency and inclusion of all voices, quick delivery and implementing best practice). Thus, to what extent are these short-term implementation problems or a deeper and more fundamental clash of policy objectives?