Effective water governance for a resilient Lake Champlain Basin
I joined the Basin Resilience to Extreme Events (BREE) project within the Vermont EPSCoR program at UVM in July of 2017. My role with BREE was to analyze the multi-scale, multiplex water governance networks in the Lake Champlain Basin - and to link this complex governance system to land use (dis)incentives and water quality outcomes. One of the reasons I chose to join BREE was the opportunity to study the multi-scale nature of the incentives and constraints that affect land use in the Lake Champlain Basin (LCB). During this time, I worked with excellent researchers, policymakers, and stakeholders to create positive change in the region. Although I left UVM for a faculty position at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2019 (and although BREE concluded in late 2021), I remain engaged with many of the stakeholders, researchers, and projects from my time at UVM.
Below are the various aspects of my research in this area. Please feel free to contact me with any questions.
Agent-based modeling of water governance in the Lake Champlain Basin (LCB)
My primary task with BREE was the development of an agent-based model (and modeling framework, more generally) that captures interactions among governance actors and institutions to land use and other environmental change (e.g., climate, water quality) in the LCB. The ABM, written in MASON, simulates:
the regionalization of water quality funds and statutory requirements managed by the state government (e.g., block grants), including coordination among municipalities and regional actors
different levels of implementation and planning capacity, and their distribution across the governance network
alternative prioritization schemes for leveraging capacity and funds to address load reductions mandated by an EPA TMDL.
The governance ABM is coupled to climate, hydrological, and land use models, and allows for the investigation of alternative scenarios under different assumptions of climate, policies, and environmental lags.
The results from this research directly informed Vermont’s Act 76, which created new regional clean water service providers (CWSPs) to manage non-regulatory reductions in nutrient pollution to Lake Champlain.
Products
Bitterman P., C. Koliba. 2020. Modeling Alternative Collaborative Governance Network Designs: An Agent-Based Model of Water Governance in the Lake Champlain Basin, Vermont. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. doi: 10.1093/jopart/muaa013.
News
UVM Research at the Heart of Vermont’s New Clean Waters Management Program
Social (and social-ecological) network analysis
As part of our research on LCB governance, I surveyed institutions and municipalities in the LCB to better understand how they share resources, distribute information, and coordinate activities. This complex social network spans scales and domains, and its structure can help us better understand where to target policy interventions. We analyzed the governance networks focusing on the structure of actors’ ego networks to characterize differences among local network structures. We also analyzed network morphology to identify social-ecological mismatch and areas of need relative to estimates of phosphorus loads. Finally, we mapped a network of connected “action situations” (in the Ostrom parlance) to better understand how, where, and why governance actors are collaborating across the system.