Stakeholder integration predicts better outcomes from groundwater sustainability policy

Debra Perrone; Melissa M Rohde; Courtney Hammond Wagner; Rebecca Anderson; Samantha Arthur; Ngodoo Atume; Meagan Brown; Lauren Esaki-Kua; Martha Gonzalez Fernandez; Kelly A Garvey; Katherine Heidel; William D Jones; Sara Khosrowshahi Asl; Carrie Munill; Rebecca Nelson; J Pablo Ortiz-Partida; E J Remson

doi:10.1038/s41467-023-39363-y

Stakeholder integration predicts better outcomes from groundwater sustainability policy

Nat Commun. 2023 Jun 27;14(1):3793. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-39363-y.

Authors

Debra Perrone^#¹, Melissa M Rohde^#^{2

3

4}, Courtney Hammond Wagner^#^{5

6}, Rebecca Anderson^{7

8}, Samantha Arthur⁹, Ngodoo Atume¹⁰, Meagan Brown¹¹, Lauren Esaki-Kua¹², Martha Gonzalez Fernandez¹³, Kelly A Garvey^{12

11}, Katherine Heidel¹⁴, William D Jones^{13

15}, Sara Khosrowshahi Asl^{12

16}, Carrie Munill¹⁴, Rebecca Nelson¹⁷, J Pablo Ortiz-Partida¹⁸, E J Remson¹⁹

Affiliations

¹ Environmental Studies, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA. perrone@ucsb.edu.
² California Water Program, The Nature Conservancy, Sacramento, CA, USA. melissa@rohdeenvironmental.com.
³ SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, NY, USA. melissa@rohdeenvironmental.com.
⁴ Rohde Environmental Consulting, LLC, Seattle, WA, USA. melissa@rohdeenvironmental.com.
⁵ USDA Agricultural Research Service, Food Systems Research Unit, Burlington, VT, USA. courtney.hammond-wagner@usda.gov.
⁶ Water in the West, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. courtney.hammond-wagner@usda.gov.
⁷ Independent Consultant, Portland, OR, USA.
⁸ WaterNow Alliance, San Francisco, CA, USA.
⁹ Audubon California, Sacramento, CA, USA.
¹⁰ Clean Water Action, Oakland, CA, USA.
¹¹ Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
¹² Water in the West, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
¹³ Environmental Studies, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
¹⁴ Tetra Tech, Lafayette, CA, USA.
¹⁵ USDA Agricultural Research Service, Food Systems Research Unit, Burlington, VT, USA.
¹⁶ Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.
¹⁷ Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
¹⁸ Union of Concerned Scientists, Oakland, CA, USA.
¹⁹ California Water Program, The Nature Conservancy, Sacramento, CA, USA.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Natural resources policies that promote sustainable management are critical for protecting diverse stakeholders against depletion. Although integrating diverse stakeholders into these policies has been theorized to improve protection, empirical evidence is lacking. Here, we evaluate 108 Sustainability Plans under California's Sustainable Groundwater Management Act to quantify how well stakeholders are integrated into plans and protected from groundwater depletion. We find that the majority of Sustainability Plans do not integrate or protect the majority of their stakeholders. Nevertheless, our results show that when stakeholders are more integrated into a Sustainability Plan, they are more likely to be protected, particularly for those that lack formal access to decision-making processes. Our findings provide strong empirical evidence that integrating diverse stakeholders into sustainability planning is beneficial for stakeholders who are vulnerable to the impacts of natural resource depletion.