Complexities and Uncertainties of Water Policy, Governance and Management
A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Water Resources Management, Policy and Governance".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 November 2025
Special Issue Editors
Interests: water demand and supply; water resources management; water resources cooperation; water resources conflict; resource and environmental policy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: water demand and supply; water resources management; water resources cooperation; water resources conflict; resource and environmental policy
Interests: building science/engineering; building materials/LCA/embodied carbon/IAQ (indoor air quality); game theory; water management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The intricacies and unpredictability of water policy, governance, and management arise from the multifaceted interplay between natural systems, societal demands, economic activities, and policy structures. This necessitates transcending the traditional engineering–economic paradigm by embracing resilience in governance and management through the lens of complex adaptive systems. At its core, this approach involves analyzing the interaction mechanisms between natural and social systems, designing adaptive governance tools, and fostering sustainable development through ethical restructuring and the democratization of technology. Research should prioritize exploring innovative strategies for climate resilience, leveraging data-driven decision-making, and fostering global collaborative networks. This Special Issue emphasizes the development of a “nature–society–technology” collaborative framework to navigate uncertainty, with a strong focus on fostering institutional resilience, aligning interests, and promoting interdisciplinary integration to tackle the growing complexity of the global water crisis.
The research topics for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:
- The uncertainty and risk of natural systems;
- The institutional dilemma of policy implementation;
- The dynamic interference of social and economic factors;
- The innovation of governance tools and ethical reconstruction;
- Global collaboration combined with local practice;
- Adaptive management and innovation pathways.
Dr. Liang Yuan
Prof. Dr. Weijun He
Dr. Dagmawi Mulugeta Degefu
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- complexity
- uncertainty
- adaptability management
- resilience governance
- cooperation mechanisms
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