Urban water governance and learning - time for more systemic approaches?
The aim of this paper is to increase understanding of triple-loop social learning to improve the “learning infrastructure”. It investigates key learning barriers for realizing green (livable) and adaptive cities in Malmö and Gothenburg, Sweden. Integration of nature-based solutions in spatial planning and development of these cities has been slow.
The results found three types of barriers contributing to this:
- systemic (disconnecting parts with the whole);
- opacity (reducing communication between error detection and correction); and
- process-related (reducing the adoption of innovations).
The paper contributes to understanding the social learning barriers for implementing planning. These insights could help overcome “adaptation inertia” and speed up policy learning towards sustainability and resilience.