The Watershed as a Focus for Public Administration: Conventional and Bioregional Approaches

Abstract

The watershed, a facet of physical landscape and resources management in the sciences and a symbol of social change among bioregionalists, has become a widely used organizing principle in administrative and community-based settings. This article reviews the roots of the watershed focus in the disparate literatures of water resources management and bioregionalism. The analysis shows that while neither group has seen its initial proposals fully realized, the watershed has indeed become a way to integrate the necessary knowledge and feeling necessary for more sustainable place-based governance.

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Notes on contributors

Lisa S. Nelson

Lisa S. Nelson is an Associate Professor and Coordinator of the MPA program in the Department of Political Science at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Her research interests include environmental and natural resources management, interorganizational collaboration, and citizen participation. Recent articles have appeared in The international Journal of Organization Theory & Behavior and Administrative Theory & Praxis.

Louis F. Weschler

Louis F. Weschler is Professor Emeritus in the School of Public Affairs at Arizona State University. He is currently working with the City of Glendale, Arizona, helping them develop a program evaluation system, and doing research on children in at-risk families with the Center for Prevention Research at Arizona State University.