Publication
Reforming Water Governance: Nordic Lessons for Southern Europe
| datacite.subject.fos | Ciências Sociais::Economia e Gestão | |
| datacite.subject.sdg | 12:Produção e Consumo Sustentáveis | |
| dc.contributor.author | Santos, Eleonora | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-10-17T10:07:44Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-10-17T10:07:44Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2025-08-05 | |
| dc.description | Article number- 7079 | |
| dc.description | This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability in Urban Water Resource Management. | |
| dc.description.abstract | Water governance in Europe faces mounting challenges from climate change, demographic pressures, and aging infrastructure—especially in Southern regions increasingly affected by drought and institutional fragmentation. In contrast, Nordic countries such as Denmark and Sweden exhibit coherent, integrated governance systems with strong regulatory oversight. This study introduces the Water Governance Maturity Index (WGMI), a document-based assessment tool designed to evaluate national water governance across five dimensions: institutional capacity, operational effectiveness, environmental ambition, equity, and climate adaptation. Applying the WGMI to eight EU countries—four Nordic and four Southern—reveals a persistent North–South divide in governance maturity. Nordic countries consistently score in the “advanced” or “model” range, while Southern countries face systemic gaps in implementation, climate integration, and territorial inclusion. Based on these findings, the study offers actionable policy recommendations, including the establishment of independent regulators, strengthening of river basin coordination, mainstreaming of climate-water strategies, and expansion of affordability and participation mechanisms. By translating complex governance principles into measurable indicators, the WGMI provides a practical tool for benchmarking reform progress and supporting the EU’s broader agenda for just resilience and climate adaptation. Unlike broader frameworks like SDG 6.5.1, the WGMI’s document-based, dimension-specific approach provides granular, actionable insights for governance reform, enhancing its utility for EU and global policymakers. | eng |
| dc.description.sponsorship | This paper is financed by National Funds of the FCT—Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology within the project «UIDB/04928/2020». | |
| dc.identifier.citation | Santos, E. Reforming Water Governance: Nordic Lessons for Southern Europe. Sustainability 2025, 17, 7079. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17157079 | |
| dc.identifier.doi | 10.3390/su17157079 | |
| dc.identifier.issn | 2071-1050 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10400.8/14299 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | |
| dc.peerreviewed | yes | |
| dc.publisher | MDPI | |
| dc.relation | Centre of Applied Research in Management and Economics | |
| dc.relation.hasversion | https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/15/7079 | |
| dc.relation.ispartof | Sustainability | |
| dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | |
| dc.subject | climate adaptation | |
| dc.subject | institutional reform | |
| dc.subject | multicriteria index | |
| dc.subject | Nordic countries | |
| dc.subject | public policy | |
| dc.subject | Southern Europe | |
| dc.subject | water governance | |
| dc.title | Reforming Water Governance: Nordic Lessons for Southern Europe | eng |
| dc.type | journal article | |
| dspace.entity.type | Publication | |
| oaire.awardTitle | Centre of Applied Research in Management and Economics | |
| oaire.awardURI | info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/6817 - DCRRNI ID/UIDB%2F04928%2F2020/PT | |
| oaire.citation.issue | 15 | |
| oaire.citation.title | Sustainability | |
| oaire.citation.volume | 17 | |
| oaire.fundingStream | 6817 - DCRRNI ID | |
| oaire.version | http://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85 | |
| person.familyName | Santos | |
| person.givenName | Eleonora | |
| person.identifier.ciencia-id | 321B-D068-1CB4 | |
| person.identifier.orcid | 0000-0003-4693-0804 | |
| person.identifier.scopus-author-id | 56903606100 | |
| project.funder.identifier | http://doi.org/10.13039/501100001871 | |
| project.funder.name | Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia | |
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