Technical knowledge and water resources management: A comparative study of river basin councils, Brazil

Abstract

Better understanding of the factors that shape the use of technical knowledge in water management is important both to increase its relevance to decision‐making and sustainable governance and to inform knowledge producers where needs lie. This is particularly critical in the context of the many stressors threatening water resources around the world. Recent scholarship focusing on innovative water management institutions emphasizes knowledge use as critical to water systems' adaptive capacity to respond to these stressors. For the past 15 years, water resources management in Brazil has undergone an encompassing reform that has created a set of participatory councils at the river basin level. Using data from a survey of 626 members of these councils across 18 river basins, this article examines the use of technical knowledge (e.g., climate and weather forecasts, reservoir streamflow models, environmental impact assessments, among others) within these councils. It finds that use of knowledge positively aligns with access, a more diverse and broader discussion agenda, and a higher sense of effectiveness. Yet, use of technical knowledge is also associated with skewed levels of power within the councils.