Crises and Institutional Change: Emergence of Cross-Border Water Governance in Lake Eyre Basin, Australia

ABSTRACT

Managing large river basins for sustainability is a contentious social–ecological arena challenging traditional scientific and rational planning approaches to water and related natural resources governance. “Crises” are inevitable but double-edged: creating threats and uncertainties, but also new opportunities to shape trajectories of change and avoid adverse consequences. A case study of the large remote cross-border Lake Eyre Basin (LEB), in arid central Australia, shows how over two decades a series of social–ecological and political–administrative “crises” emerged, posing significant environmental and social dilemmas for water governance, while also opening up opportunities for institutional change. This article examines the role of crises in the emergence and evolution of water governance in the LEB, how they were perceived, the challenges and opportunities posed, social and institutional responses, and governance capacity outcomes. Finally, it reflects on emergent crises as opportunities for more systemic and adaptive change in large river basins.

KEYWORDS:

• Collaboration
• crises
• cross-border
• institutional change
• multilevel
• water governance