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This Special Issue aims to reflect on knowledge co-production and transdisciplinarity, exploring the mutual interaction between water governance and water research. We do so with contributions that bring examples from diverse parts of the world: Bolivia, Canada, Germany, Ghana, Namibia, the Netherlands, Palestine, and South Africa. Key insights brought by these contributions include the importance of engaging the actors from early stages of transdisciplinary research, and the need for an in-depth understanding of the diverse needs, competences, and power of actors and the water governance system in which knowledge co-production takes place. Further, several future research directions are identified, such as the examination of knowledge backgrounds according to the individual and collective thought styles of different actors. Together, the eight papers included in this Special Issue constitute a significant step toward a better understanding of knowledge co-production and transdisciplinarity, with a common thread for being reflective and clear about their complexity, and the political implications and risks they pose for inclusive, plural and just water research and governance.

This paper examines the relationship between farmer participation and environmental sustainability from an institutional perspective in the context of Harran Plain, one of the newest and largest irrigated areas in Turkey. Harran Plain undergoes social, economic and institutional change due to the expansion of large-scale irrigation and the establishment of irrigation associations. These changes, however, trigger an environmental change in the form of waterlogging and soil salinisation. The concepts of 'institutional scale' and 'institutional alignment' are applied to critically analyse the narratives regarding the causes of excessive water use, which is a collective action problem playing a significant role in increased waterlogging and soil salinity in Harran Plain. Empirical findings demonstrate that a low degree of institutional alignment among the rules at different levels constitutes an obstacle against taking actions to prevent excessive water use. Major issues are identified as the lack of water rights at plot and district levels; the exclusion of farmers from the planning of irrigation seasons; the inefficient monitoring of irrigation frequencies and fee collections, and the lack of mechanisms to monitor the operations of irrigation associations. The application of institutional scale and institutional alignment also contribute to the understanding of social-ecological systems by facilitating the systematic analysis of institutions and the identification of areas for institutional change.

In many countries, irrigated agriculture is crucial for food security and poverty reduction. Despite these socio-economic prospects, irrigation agriculture often leads to negative impacts that threaten environmental sustainability. Particularly in semi-arid and arid regions, the coupled problems of waterlogging and soil salinisation are often experienced. These problems result from various social,institutional and political factors. The thesis investigates the role of such factors from a governance perspective, focusing on the 'multiplicities' inherent in natural resource governance. Two types of multiplicities are discerned in the thesis: structural and actor-based. Structural multiplicity originates from multiple governance dimensions, which are identified as policy sectors, scales and institutions. Actor-based multiplicity arises due to the existence of numerous actors that interact in policy and resource use processes and often possess different characteristics in terms of motivations, cognitions, capacity and power. Influences of multiplicities can lead to both obstacles and opportunities for governance. The obstacles can hinder integrating all essential elements into the governance system, whereas the opportunities can help create a comprehensive governance system that is conducive to environmental sustainability. To understand how these influences occur, the thesis introduces the novel concept of 'alignment', which refers to "the relative positioning of the multiplicities in governance in such a way that it is conducive to sustainable natural resource governance". Building on the policy studies and political ecology disciplines, an analytical framework is developed to study the alignment of multiplicities. Empirical analysis is based on a fieldwork in Turkey, where the local case of Harran Plain is also examined in depth. Harran Plain was chosen since it has been undergoing an agro-environmental change due to the introduction of large-scale irrigated agriculture in the 1990s, whereas waterlogging and soil salinisation problems are spreading too. The thesis concludes that a low degree of alignment has negative implications for the sustainable governance of natural resources. Improving the degree of alignment is conducive to environmental sustainability by helping to alleviate the negative impacts, and to prevent further degradation. It is therefore essential to relieve the obstacles and benefit from the opportunities towards a governance system of highly-aligned multiplicities.

This paper examines the relationship between farmer participation and environmental sustainability from an institutional perspective in the context of Harran Plain, one of the newest and largest irrigated areas in Turkey. Harran Plain undergoes social, economic and institutional change due to the expansion of large-scale irrigation and the establishment of irrigation associations. These changes, however, trigger an environmental change in the form of waterlogging and soil salinisation. The concepts of 'institutional scale' and 'institutional alignment' are applied to critically analyse the narratives regarding the causes of excessive water use, which is a collective action problem playing a significant role in increased waterlogging and soil salinity in Harran Plain. Empirical findings demonstrate that a low degree of institutional alignment among the rules at different levels constitutes an obstacle against taking actions to prevent excessive water use. Major issues are identified as the lack of water rights at plot and district levels; the exclusion of farmers from the planning of irrigation seasons; the inefficient monitoring of irrigation frequencies and fee collections, and the lack of mechanisms to monitor the operations of irrigation associations. The application of institutional scale and institutional alignment also contribute to the understanding of social-ecological systems by facilitating the systematic analysis of institutions and the identification of areas for institutional change.

In discussions of water management during conflict, non-state armed groups (NSAGs) primarily feature in relation to the strategic use of water resources to gain military or political advantage, but not as actors of civil governance within territories under their control. Given the humanitarian importance of water services, we study the role of NSAGs in wartime water governance and their interactions with other actors, based on empirical data from three cases in the Middle East: (1) the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, (2) the Houthi-controlled north of Yemen, and (3) Northeastern Syria under the control of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria and its Syrian Democratic Forces. Our theoretical framework builds on previous studies on rebel governance to analyze NSAG involvement in local water service provision, water infrastructure development, and institutional processes related to policy-making and long-term planning. We find differences between the three cases regarding the access to external funds and the local expectations toward public water services, and identify financial interests and local legitimacy as main motivations for NSAG's involvement in water governance. Our results also show several examples of water service provision in NSAG-controlled areas being "outsourced" to other actors, including state authorities, private providers and international organizations.

Transdisciplinary research offers a promising approach to development cooperation programs by integrating knowledge from academic and non-academic stakeholders, and from natural and social sciences. In the context of development research on water, there is little evidence on how stakeholder involvement takes place in the three stages of transdisciplinary research (problem definition, knowledge production, and knowledge application). This paper aims to create empirical evidence and insights on this question based on the Palestinian-Dutch Academic Cooperation Programme on Water (PADUCO). Six research projects, which have been implemented within the first phase of PADUCO, were examined using the data collected through a survey and document reviews. The results show that research problems were defined according to societal needs and contextual factors. Research teams were multidisciplinary and included non-academic members, whereas the institutional involvement of non-academic stakeholders was limited and unbalanced between the governmental and non-governmental actors. Although the application of the knowledge produced was mainly focused on academia, opportunities for broad dissemination were utilized, albeit to a limited extent. Finally, there was a lack of monitoring and evaluation of impacts, which is explained by the budget and time limitations of such small-scale projects and can be mitigated by programme-level measures.

The low-lying coastal areas of the countries around the North Sea are exposed to flooding and the influence of sea level rise. The countries in the North Sea Region need to continue to adapt if the associated risk is to be well-managed into the future. In addition to reducing flood risk, adaptation measures can bring development opportunities for those same places. These opportunities, however, are unlikely to be achieved through a 'defence only' paradigm, and instead a new approach is needed that simultaneously reduces risk and promotes liveable places, ecosystem health and social well-being. The building blocks of this new approach are promoted here and are based on an adaptation process that is collaborative and takes a whole-system, long-term perspective. The approach developed through the Interreg funded project, C5a, brings together governments, practitioners and researchers from across the North Sea to share policies, practices and the emerging science of climate change adaptation and enabling sustainable development. The new approach reflects a Cloud to Coast management paradigm and emerged through a combination of knowledge exchange and peer-to-peer learning across seven case studies. Central to the case studies was a maturity analysis of existing capabilities across the North Sea countries and their ability to adopt the new approach. This paper presents the results of this analysis, including the common challenges that emerged and the methods and examples of good practice to overcome them. Building upon these findings, the paper concludes by presenting four priority policy directions to support the uptake of the Cloud to Coast approach.

Over the last decade, Europe's drought management and policy has been characterized by a predominantly crisis-oriented approach. However, the widening gap between the impacts of drought episodes and the ability to prepare, manage and mitigate such droughts has motivated the European Union (EU) to make significant improvements that address drought management using a preventative approach.

River basin management and decentralisation reforms are promoted worldwide for solving water pollution problems. In Mexico, governmental efforts have been made to operate wastewater treatment plants countrywide, but federal administrations have not achieved their intended outcomes. Acknowledging the role of governance in the implementation of wastewater treatment policy, this paper analyses three cases in central Mexico and addresses the question: How does the governance context affect the implementation of the wastewater treatment policy in central Mexico? A governance assessment tool is applied to answer the question. The assessment allows an understanding of the governance context and is paired with a comparative case study design. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and documents reviews. The results indicate that the governance context mainly restricts the implementation of the wastewater treatment policy. In all subnational three cases, the river basin management and decentralisation reforms have not reached their objectives. By comparing the three cases, we found that the state level can play a relevant role to decrease fragmentation and to increase the coherence of the wastewater treatment policy. Therefore, strengthening the involvement of the state government and the improvement of mechanisms that limit political machinations can increase the supportiveness of the governance context.