Water governance for water security: analysing institutional strengths and challenges in Finland

ABSTRACT

The relationship between water security and water governance across different water-using sectors remains under-researched. We apply the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Water Governance Indicator Framework with revised principles and criteria to analyse three sectors critical to water security in Finland: bioeconomy, mining and water infrastructure. Our findings indicate that water security as a concept helps to both assess and clarify governance priorities, while well-functioning governance with engagement of key actors is a prerequisite for broader water security. Given the differing interests and emerging pressures related to water, ensuring water security requires well-resourced public sector agencies to coordinate interaction across sectors and actors.

KEYWORDS:

• Water security
• water governance
• minerals and mining
• bioeconomy
• water infrastructure
• Finland

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank warmly all the interviewed experts for sharing their views. We also thank our colleagues for their support: special thanks to Mia Pihlajamäki, Laura Verbrugge and Irina Mancheva from Aalto University for their comments on the manuscript, and Amy Fallon for language editing.

Author contributions

Conceptualization: SS, AB, LA; Formal analysis: all; Funding acquisition: AB, MK; Investigation: LA, SS, AB; Methodology: LA, SS, AB; Project administration: LA, SS; Supervision: AB, MK; Visualization: LA; Writing – original draft: SS, LA, AB, NS; Writing – review and editing: all. LA and SS have contributed equally to this paper.

Consent of participants

The study involved interviews. All the interviewed persons were above 18 years and gave their consent to participate in the study. They were all explained the background and aims of the study at the beginning of the interview. All participants consented to the recording of the interview. The research was conducted in accordance with the principles embodied in the Declaration of Helsinki and in accordance with local statutory requirements. The participants are not identifiable from the results. Based on Aalto University’s ethics self-assessment the study does not need a separate approval from Aalto University’s ethics committee.

Data availability statement

Interview metadata and other supporting datasets are stored at Aalto University’s research portal (Sojamo & Ahopelto, 2019), https://doi.org/10.24342/1f17bb2b-9873-4e94-a984-189630c20795. Detailed data from the interviews are not available to protect the identities of the interviewed persons.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no financial conflicts, competing interests or personal relationships that might be perceived to influence the work on this article.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/07900627.2023.2266733.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Maa- ja Vesitekniikan Tuki ry, the Finnish Environment Institute (Suomen ympäristökeskus), and the Strategic Research Council (SRC) of Finland [grant numbers 303623, 303629, 312652 and 312747] coordinated by the Research Council of Finland (Suomen Akatemia).