Assessment of Water Resilience Principles in Water Policies and Plans: Niagara Region

Abstract

The growing pressures on urban water services has created implications for managing and governing water sustainably affecting the resilience of social-ecological systems. Water governance resilience principles present an opportunity for water managers and policymakers to incorporate and respond to changes or disturbances within the water system. This case study investigates to what extent the resilience principles from the water governance literature are evident in water policies and plans at the regional municipality level in the Niagara Region. Through a content analysis of policy documents, it was found the presence of the seven resilience principles differed across and within the documents with only one document containing all seven. These findings indicate that the policies and plans do not currently reflect sustainability principles which may have implications for the governance of water in the Niagara Region, and that further understanding of resilience principles is needed by governments and policymakers in the region.