Assessing the Level of Inter-Sectoral Policy Integration for Governance in the Water–Energy Nexus: A Comparative Study of Los Angeles and Beijing
As concerns around water scarcity and energy security increase, so too has interest in the connections between these resources, through a concept called the water–energy nexus. Efforts to improve the integration of water and energy management and to understand their cross-sector relevance...
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| Format: | Article |
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Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
2020
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/127695 |
| _version_ | 1826210677074690048 |
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| author | Sixt, Gregory N. Strambo, Claudia Zhang, Jingjing Chow, Nicholas Liu, Jie Han, Guoyi |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Abdul Latif Jameel World Water & Food Security Lab |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Abdul Latif Jameel World Water & Food Security Lab Sixt, Gregory N. Strambo, Claudia Zhang, Jingjing Chow, Nicholas Liu, Jie Han, Guoyi |
| author_sort | Sixt, Gregory N. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | As concerns around water scarcity and energy security increase, so too has interest in the connections between these resources, through a concept called the water–energy nexus. Efforts to improve the integration of water and energy management and to understand their cross-sector relevance are growing. In particular, this paper develops a better empirical understanding on the extent to which governance settings hinder and/or enable policy coherence between the water and energy sectors through a comparative analysis of two case studies, namely, Los Angeles County, California, the United States, and the city of Beijing, China. This paper examines the extent to which the institutional context enables policy coordination within (vertically) and between (horizontally) the water and energy sectors in Beijing and Los Angeles. To do so, we propose a framework for analyzing policy integration for the water energy nexus based on environmental policy integration (EPI). The results highlight the multiple and flexible approaches of EPI in nexus governance, not least with regards to horizontal and vertical policy integration, but also in terms of explicit (i.e., intended) and implicit (i.e., unintended) coordination. The level of nexus-focused policy integration is highly dependent on the motivation at the local context and the criteria to evaluate policy success in each sector. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:53:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/127695 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:53:44Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1276952022-09-29T11:18:45Z Assessing the Level of Inter-Sectoral Policy Integration for Governance in the Water–Energy Nexus: A Comparative Study of Los Angeles and Beijing Sixt, Gregory N. Strambo, Claudia Zhang, Jingjing Chow, Nicholas Liu, Jie Han, Guoyi Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Abdul Latif Jameel World Water & Food Security Lab As concerns around water scarcity and energy security increase, so too has interest in the connections between these resources, through a concept called the water–energy nexus. Efforts to improve the integration of water and energy management and to understand their cross-sector relevance are growing. In particular, this paper develops a better empirical understanding on the extent to which governance settings hinder and/or enable policy coherence between the water and energy sectors through a comparative analysis of two case studies, namely, Los Angeles County, California, the United States, and the city of Beijing, China. This paper examines the extent to which the institutional context enables policy coordination within (vertically) and between (horizontally) the water and energy sectors in Beijing and Los Angeles. To do so, we propose a framework for analyzing policy integration for the water energy nexus based on environmental policy integration (EPI). The results highlight the multiple and flexible approaches of EPI in nexus governance, not least with regards to horizontal and vertical policy integration, but also in terms of explicit (i.e., intended) and implicit (i.e., unintended) coordination. The level of nexus-focused policy integration is highly dependent on the motivation at the local context and the criteria to evaluate policy success in each sector. 2020-09-25T19:46:04Z 2020-09-25T19:46:04Z 2020-09 2020-09-07T22:02:02Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2071-1050 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/127695 Sixt, Gregory N. et al. "Assessing the Level of Inter-Sectoral Policy Integration for Governance in the Water–Energy Nexus: A Comparative Study of Los Angeles and Beijing." Sustainability 12, 17 (September 2020): 7220 ©2020 Author(s) 10.3390/su12177220 Sustainability Creative Commons Attribution https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute |
| spellingShingle | Sixt, Gregory N. Strambo, Claudia Zhang, Jingjing Chow, Nicholas Liu, Jie Han, Guoyi Assessing the Level of Inter-Sectoral Policy Integration for Governance in the Water–Energy Nexus: A Comparative Study of Los Angeles and Beijing |
| title | Assessing the Level of Inter-Sectoral Policy Integration for Governance in the Water–Energy Nexus: A Comparative Study of Los Angeles and Beijing |
| title_full | Assessing the Level of Inter-Sectoral Policy Integration for Governance in the Water–Energy Nexus: A Comparative Study of Los Angeles and Beijing |
| title_fullStr | Assessing the Level of Inter-Sectoral Policy Integration for Governance in the Water–Energy Nexus: A Comparative Study of Los Angeles and Beijing |
| title_full_unstemmed | Assessing the Level of Inter-Sectoral Policy Integration for Governance in the Water–Energy Nexus: A Comparative Study of Los Angeles and Beijing |
| title_short | Assessing the Level of Inter-Sectoral Policy Integration for Governance in the Water–Energy Nexus: A Comparative Study of Los Angeles and Beijing |
| title_sort | assessing the level of inter sectoral policy integration for governance in the water energy nexus a comparative study of los angeles and beijing |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/127695 |
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