IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i6p3248-d768133.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Multi-Level Prioritization Analysis of Water Governance Components to Improve Agricultural Water-Saving Policy: A Case Study from Korea

Author

Listed:
  • Seul-gi Lee

    (Department of Agricultural Civil Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Korea)

  • Bashir Adelodun

    (Department of Agricultural Civil Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Korea
    Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, University of Ilorin, PMB 1515, Ilorin 240003, Nigeria)

  • Mirza Junaid Ahmad

    (Department of Agricultural Civil Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Korea)

  • Kyung Sook Choi

    (Department of Agricultural Civil Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Korea
    Institute of Agricultural Science & Technology, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Korea)

Abstract

The challenge of unstainable agricultural water usage in Korea has continued interminably despite persisting climate change impacts; thus, necessitating urgent actions to forestall future water crises. However, achieving this goal requires the involvement of stakeholders to develop an effective governance policy concerning water saving. This study investigates the components of water governance following existing water policy gaps. A multi-level Delphi-AHP technique was used to identify and prioritize the essential components of agricultural water governance that can specifically enhance water-saving policy in Korea. The analysis of twenty-nine formulated components (six main and twenty-three sub-components) based on the OECD water policy gaps was conducted. A Delphi-AHP technique with process evaluation of the agricultural water experts’ opinions under pairwise comparisons was used to arrive at the relative order of importance of the components. The order of main components based on the consolidated weight follows core actors (0.316), law, policies, and systems (0.069), budget support (0.135), information sharing and communication (0.099), mutual learning (0.142), and external experts (0.239), while village representatives (0.353), legislation (0.358), central government (0.311), policy committee (0.309), education course (0.374), and facilitator (0.402) were considered as priorities, respectively, for the sub-components of water governance. The findings indicate that strengthening the informal institution could address the water governance gaps in the agricultural sector to achieve water-saving policies. This study recommends a bottom-up approach to water governance that could promote the active participation of core actors such as farmers and villagers in the design of policy and management of agricultural water resources.

Suggested Citation

  • Seul-gi Lee & Bashir Adelodun & Mirza Junaid Ahmad & Kyung Sook Choi, 2022. "Multi-Level Prioritization Analysis of Water Governance Components to Improve Agricultural Water-Saving Policy: A Case Study from Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-18, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:6:p:3248-:d:768133
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/6/3248/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/6/3248/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sung-Ho Kil & Dong Kun Lee & Jun-Hyun Kim & Ming-Han Li & Galen Newman, 2016. "Utilizing the Analytic Hierarchy Process to Establish Weighted Values for Evaluating the Stability of Slope Revegetation based on Hydroseeding Applications in South Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-17, January.
    2. Soojun Kim & Naresh Devineni & Upmanu Lall & Hung Soo Kim, 2018. "Sustainable Development of Water Resources: Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Water Stress in South Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-17, October.
    3. Meinzen-Dick, Ruth & Raju, K. V. & Gulati, Ashok, 2002. "What Affects Organization and Collective Action for Managing Resources? Evidence from Canal Irrigation Systems in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 649-666, April.
    4. Mirzaei, Arezoo & Knierim, Andrea & Fealy Nahavand, Saeid & Mahmoudi, Hossein, 2017. "Gap analysis of water governance in Northern Iran: A closer look into the water reservoirs," Environmental Science & Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 98-106.
    5. Aziza Akhmouch & Delphine Clavreul & Peter Glas, 2018. "Introducing the OECD Principles on Water Governance," Water International, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(1), pages 5-12, January.
    6. Nhamo, L. & Mabhaudhi, T. & Mpandeli, S. & Dickens, Chris & Nhemachena, C. & Senzanje, A. & Naidoo, D. & Liphadzi, S. & Modi, A. T., 2020. "An integrative analytical model for the water-energy-food nexus: South Africa case study," Papers published in Journals (Open Access), International Water Management Institute, pages 109:15-124..
    7. Arwin van Buuren & Ingmar van Meerkerk & Cecilia Tortajada, 2019. "Understanding emergent participation practices in water governance," International Journal of Water Resources Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(3), pages 367-382, May.
    8. Nazemi, Neda & Foley, Rider W. & Louis, Garrick & Keeler, Lauren Withycombe, 2020. "Divergent agricultural water governance scenarios: The case of Zayanderud basin, Iran," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 229(C).
    9. Montgomery, Jenna & Xu, Wei & Bjornlund, Henning & Edwards, Jane, 2016. "A table for five: Stakeholder perceptions of water governance in Alberta," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 11-21.
    10. Berg, Sanford V., 2016. "Seven elements affecting governance and performance in the water sector," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(PA), pages 4-13.
    11. Golden Odey & Bashir Adelodun & Sang Hyun Kim & Kyung Sook Choi, 2021. "Conflicting Drivers of Virtual Water Trade: A Review Based on the “Virtual Water Concept”," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 7(03), pages 1-25, July.
    12. Aziza Akhmouch, 2012. "Water Governance in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Multi-Level Approach," OECD Regional Development Working Papers 2012/4, OECD Publishing.
    13. Hasily, M.A. & Golabi, M. & Nasab, S. Boroomand, 2020. "Study and evaluation of irrigation and drainage networks using analytic hierarchy process in Khuzestan Province: A virtual water approach," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    14. Yoram Wind & Thomas L. Saaty, 1980. "Marketing Applications of the Analytic Hierarchy Process," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(7), pages 641-658, July.
    15. Laureti, Tiziana & Benedetti, Ilaria & Branca, Giacomo, 2021. "Water use efficiency and public goods conservation: A spatial stochastic frontier model applied to irrigation in Southern Italy," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    16. Parvin Golfam & Parisa-Sadat Ashofteh & Taher Rajaee & Xuefeng Chu, 2019. "Prioritization of Water Allocation for Adaptation to Climate Change Using Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM)," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 33(10), pages 3401-3416, August.
    17. Zhang, Liyun & Hu, Jinming & Li, Yanbo & Pradhan, Neera Shrestha, 2018. "Public-private partnership in enhancing farmers’ adaptation to drought: Insights from the Lujiang Flatland in the Nu River (Upper Salween) valley, China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 138-145.
    18. Aliasghar Montazar & E. Zadbagher, 2010. "An Analytical Hierarchy Model for Assessing Global Water Productivity of Irrigation Networks in Iran," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 24(11), pages 2817-2832, September.
    19. Jordi Gallego-Ayala & Dinis Juízo, 2014. "Integrating Stakeholders’ Preferences into Water Resources Management Planning in the Incomati River Basin," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 28(2), pages 527-540, January.
    20. William L. Hargrove & Josiah M. Heyman, 2020. "A Comprehensive Process for Stakeholder Identification and Engagement in Addressing Wicked Water Resources Problems," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-21, April.
    21. Curiel-Esparza, Jorge & Mazario-Diez, Julio L. & Canto-Perello, Julian & Martin-Utrillas, Manuel, 2016. "Prioritization by consensus of enhancements for sustainable mobility in urban areas," Environmental Science & Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(P1), pages 248-257.
    22. Susana Neto & Jeff Camkin & Andrew Fenemor & Poh-Ling Tan & Jaime Melo Baptista & Marcia Ribeiro & Roland Schulze & Sabine Stuart-Hill & Chris Spray & Rahmah Elfithri, 2018. "OECD Principles on Water Governance in practice: an assessment of existing frameworks in Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and South America," Water International, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(1), pages 60-89, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Suresh Kumar Sharma & A. Seetharaman & K. Maddulety, 2021. "Framework for Sustainable Urban Water Management in Context of Governance, Infrastructure, Technology and Economics," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 35(12), pages 3903-3913, September.
    2. Nouri, Milad & Homaee, Mehdi & Pereira, Luis S. & Bybordi, Mohammad, 2023. "Water management dilemma in the agricultural sector of Iran: A review focusing on water governance," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 288(C).
    3. Uroš Kramar & Dejan Dragan & Darja Topolšek, 2019. "The Holistic Approach to Urban Mobility Planning with a Modified Focus Group, SWOT, and Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchical Process," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-29, November.
    4. Hyungjun Seo & Seunghwan Myeong, 2020. "The Priority of Factors of Building Government as a Platform with Analytic Hierarchy Process Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-28, July.
    5. O. Flores Baquero & J. Gallego-Ayala & R. Giné-Garriga & A. Jiménez-Fernández. Palencia & A. Pérez-Foguet, 2017. "The Influence of the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation Normative Content in Measuring the Level of Service," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 133(2), pages 763-786, September.
    6. Montazar, Aliasghar & Gheidari, Omid Nasiri & Snyder, Richard L., 2013. "A fuzzy analytical hierarchy methodology for the performance assessment of irrigation projects," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 113-123.
    7. Susana Martín-Fernández & Adrián Gómez-Serrano & Eugenio Martínez-Falero & Cristina Pascual, 2018. "Comparison of AHP and a Utility-Based Theory Method for Selected Vertical and Horizontal Forest Structure Indicators in the Sustainability Assessment of Forest Management in the Sierra de Guadarrama N," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-16, November.
    8. Animesh Debnath & Mrinmoy Majumder & Manish Pal, 2015. "A Cognitive Approach in Selection of Source for Water Treatment Plant based on Climatic Impact," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 29(6), pages 1907-1919, April.
    9. Kosar Ebrahimzadeh Azbari & Parisa-Sadat Ashofteh & Parvin Golfam & Hugo A. Loáiciga, 2022. "Ranking of wastewater reuse allocation alternatives using a variance-based weighted aggregated sum product assessment method," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 2497-2513, February.
    10. S. Toosi & J. Samani, 2012. "Evaluating Water Transfer Projects Using Analytic Network Process (ANP)," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 26(7), pages 1999-2014, May.
    11. Anastasiadou, Konstantina & Gavanas, Nikolaos, 2023. "Enhancing urban public space through appropriate sustainable mobility policies. A multi-criteria analysis approach," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    12. S. Razavi Toosi & J. Samani, 2014. "A New Integrated MADM Technique Combined with ANP, FTOPSIS and Fuzzy Max-Min Set Method for Evaluating Water Transfer Projects," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 28(12), pages 4257-4272, September.
    13. Veisi, Hadi & Deihimfard, Reza & Shahmohammadi, Alireza & Hydarzadeh, Yasoub, 2022. "Application of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) in a multi-criteria selection of agricultural irrigation systems," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    14. Nguyen Mai Dang & Le Ngoc Vien & Ahad Hasan Tanim & Alexandre S. Gagnon & Duong Tran Anh, 2024. "A Framework Using Applied Process Analysis Methods to Assess Water Security in the Vu Gia–Thu Bon River Basin, Vietnam," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-23, July.
    15. Mirzaei, Arezoo & Knierim, Andrea & Fealy Nahavand, Saeid & Shokri, Shahab Alddin & Mahmoudi, Hossein, 2019. "Assessment of policy instruments towards improving the water reservoirs’ governance in Northern Iran," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 48-58.
    16. Lamya Neissi & Mohammad Albaji & Saeed Boroomand Nasab, 2019. "Site Selection of Different Irrigation Systems Using an Analytical Hierarchy Process Integrated with GIS in a Semi-Arid Region," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 33(14), pages 4955-4967, November.
    17. Oghenekaro Nelson Odume & Blessing Nonye Onyima & Chika Felicitas Nnadozie & Gift Ochonogor Omovoh & Thandi Mmachaka & Blessing Odafe Omovoh & Jude Edafe Uku & Frank Chukwuzuoke Akamagwuna & Francis O, 2022. "Governance and Institutional Drivers of Ecological Degradation in Urban River Ecosystems: Insights from Case Studies in African Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-14, October.
    18. Maryono, Maryono & Killoes, Aditya Marendra & Adhikari, Rajendra & Abdul Aziz, Ammar, 2024. "Agriculture development through multi-stakeholder partnerships in developing countries: A systematic literature review," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    19. Banai, Reza, 2010. "Evaluation of land use-transportation systems with the Analytic Network Process," The Journal of Transport and Land Use, Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, vol. 3(1), pages 85-112.
    20. Fatih Yiğit & Şakir Esnaf, 2021. "A new Fuzzy C-Means and AHP-based three-phased approach for multiple criteria ABC inventory classification," Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, Springer, vol. 32(6), pages 1517-1528, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:6:p:3248-:d:768133. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.