Promoting citizen-based river groups at sub-basin scale for multi-level river governance in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region

ABSTRACT

There is a gap between the increasing social use of urban rivers and limited citizen participation in river management under the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). A pilot participatory process aimed at promoting the active involvement of the general public in the management of an urban stream in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region was designed and tested. The participatory process was supported by web-based Public Participation Geographic Information Systems and face-to-face workshops. The opinions of the general public were collected and citizen decision-making and self-organisation were promoted. Assessment of the pilot results provided key learning points supporting the creation of citizen-based river groups: (1) setting participation in the framework of a socio-ecological understanding of the river; (2) involving local volunteers in the leadership and dissemination of participatory processes; (3) supporting participants’ learning and networking; and (4) connecting municipal-scale and basin-scale environmental interests and institutions through intermediate citizen platforms at sub-basin scale. These learning points offer a baseline for building a theory on the design of bottom-up participatory processes aimed at empowering riparian communities. Citizen-based river group formation policies may support the transition towards more multi-level European river governance.

KEYWORDS:

• citizen-based river groups
• collaborative river management
• WFD participatory processes
• bottom-up participation
• multi-level river governance

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Obra Social “la Caixa” in collaboration with the ACUP under Grant number 2015ACUP00184; and the Fundación Española para la Ciencia y la Tecnología under Grant number FCT-16-11449. The authors thank the comments of the anonymous reviewers who helped to improve the quality of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Obra Social “la Caixa” in collaboration with the ACUP under [Grant number 2015ACUP00184]; and the Fundación Española para la Ciencia y la Tecnología under [Grant number FCT-16-11449].