How does the Chinese government improve connectivity in water governance? A qualitative systematic review

ABSTRACT

This article presents a qualitative systematic review of English-language academic articles on approaches adopted by the Chinese government to overcome fragmentation and disconnection in water governance. We find that the Chinese government has deployed technical, institutional and discursive instruments, ranging from ‘hard’ to ‘soft’ ways, to improve connectivity between different administrative levels, functional agencies and territorially based units. Although these approaches are conducive to reconciling conflicts, boosting collaboration and bridging gaps in interjurisdictional, cross-level and cross-sectoral interactions, they also have unexpected implications for cost-effectiveness, practicality and sustainability.

KEYWORDS:

• Water governance
• fragmentation
• connectivity
• systematic review
• China

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [41801132]; the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province [2018A030313964]; and the Humanities and Social Science Fund of Ministry of Education of China [17YJCZH183].