BLUESTATE

In the context of growing pressures on freshwater resources and ecosystems, the BlueState project investigates how States govern water access and use. If contemporary States have difficulty acting effectively on ecological issues, no other institution has the same level of legitimacy to regulate economic and social practices, capacity to coordinate social change across multiple domains, and coercive means to enforce regulations. Acknowledging this unique capabilities of States to act as a guiding force towards enhanced sustainability, the BlueState project aims to highlight the conditions that enable the implementation of public policies that better preserve water resources and ecosystems, while ensuring equity between stakeholders. It explores the following questions: (1) How can we define and measure “blue” policies that help preserve water resources and ecosystems in an equitable way? (2) What are the actual “blue” policies that States deploy? (3) What conditions contribute to the selection and implementation of these policies? The BlueState project posits three research hypotheses: (H1) The dynamic interplay of a relatively limited number of variables can largely account for the degree of sustainability of State action regarding water resources and ecosystems. (H2) Despite the significant diversity of institutional and political contexts, State policies can be meaningfully compared by examining their responses to droughts, on different time scales, from crisis management to long-term planning. (H3) A systematic interdisciplinary approach, bridging the domains of social sciences and hydrology, is essential for comprehending the diversity and the driving forces of the “Blue State”. This project will enable us to better understand how States anticipate and/or react to droughts, according to what criteria, and with what hydrological and socio-political effects. Given the non-obvious nature of good hydrological status and the effects of public policies, this research engages a systematic interdisciplinarity in order to identify policies that are more or less favorable to resources and ecosystems, the factors influencing public decisions, and the consequences of these choices. It relies on comparative methods based on a series of case studies in France and in three other countries (USA, Brazil and South Africa). The BlueState project will enrich the literature on water and environmental policy with a study of the role played by all components of the State, an institution that this literature rarely analyzes in and of itself. Thanks to the systematic interdisciplinary approach, it will also provide original findings on hydro-sociological variables towards greater sustainability in water management. The double level of comparison will allow for a more general approach, by revealing hydrological and socio-political diversity and complexity. The international ambition of the project will facilitate its ability to make more general inferences and claims. Through the organization of discussions with decision-makers and managers, this research will enhance the reflexivity of those directly involved in water policy and management. It will help to clarify the room for manoeuvre of State actors and the levers they could possibly activate to better preserve water resources and ecosystems.