A social-ecological systems analysis of water supply governance on Samothraki, Greece

Abstract

The island of Samothraki in the North Aegean Sea features astonishing water resources of pris tine quality and high quantity. Contrary to what the condition of the water resources would suggest, the residents of Samothraki suffer from water shortages and incidents of contamination, as well as unsteady water provision to economic activities. Meanwhile, the natural water resource system starts showing signs of degradation. The situation is associated with inappropriate municipal water man agement within the frame of a collective action problem. The local municipality’s inability to provide sufficient network coverage and quality control is facing resource-intense and hard-to-control surface water abstractions by individuals for agricultural purposes. Without a coherent understanding of the structures, dynamics and interdependencies underlying management decisions, the situation is likely to continue and cause social conflict as well as ecological harm . Through the application of the Social-Ecological Systems Framework (McGinnis and Ostrom 2014), I first map out a wide range of variables connected to water management and analyse them according to their their relevance and interdependence. The results show that water mismanagement on the island is a much more complex issue than suggested until now, with strong symbiotic links between current informal and official, collective, individual and municipal institutions. I thus argue that the water supply on Samothraki is best understood as a complex social-ecological system. In a second step I draw on insights from adaptive and decentralized governance approaches to eval uate the potentials of sustainable resource management inherent in current practices on Samothraki. I find that informal networks currently contribute most to the social-ecological system’s sustainability and resilience, and embody the incubators of new approaches of sustainable governance.