Stakeholder Roles Across Water Management Action Arenas

Frameworks for water resources management lack alignment with the action arenas where stakeholders have influence. Decision processes without stakeholder involvement across the sequence of problem-solving in multiple situations may be ineffective. By aligning stakeholder roles with situational contexts, water management can be improved. This paper identifies stakeholder roles for archetypes of management and an improved way to classify them. Systems analysis and the IAD framework provided a framework to organize stakeholders and context, and case studies were used to explain them. The analysis showed patterns among the cases, and seven categories of stakeholders with logical involvement emerged. Four categories stood out: interest groups, who represent people and causes; officials with governance and management responsibilities; stakeholders, who are involved due to the context; and bystanders, like researchers. Stakeholder roles can include dominators, brokers, and communicators, as well as those with less involvement. Dominators facilitate coordination, synthesize viewpoints, and exert pressure for compliance. Brokers work to coordinate collective actions, and communicators work as risk mediators. Stakeholder roles should be identified at the front end of the process to solve complex water problems.