Cry me a river: building trust and maintaining legitimacy in environmental flows

Water reforms in Australia over a decade ago have seen large-scale recovery of water for the environment. While the recovery programme commenced with bilateral political support, there has remained ongoing debate in the media around the recovery volume, method of recovery and delivering of this water through the river system. In November 2017, a group of academics and practitioners met to discuss the need for <i>legitimacy</i> as a core component of environmental water programmes. We discuss legitimacy in terms of both the process and outcome of an environmental water programme. This article, along with the others in the special issue, makes the case for investing in community support for, and demonstrating outcomes from, environmental water programmes.

澳大利亚十余年前启动的水资源改革，已实现面向生态环境的水资源大规模回收。该回收计划最初获得双边政治支持，但长期以来媒体始终围绕回收规模、回收方式以及通过河系输送此类水资源的落地实施环节存在持续争议。2017年11月，一批学者与实务工作者齐聚一堂，探讨将合法性（legitimacy）作为环境水资源项目核心构成要素的必要性。本文从环境水资源项目的实施流程与最终成果两个维度展开合法性议题的探讨。本论文与本期特刊的其他文章一道，阐明了为环境水资源项目投入资源以争取社区支持，并验证其实施成果的重要意义。