Navigating Water Quality Outcomes in American Watersheds

Whether due to climate change, drought, flooding, competing demands, or pollution, watersheds across the globe are under significant duress. To respond to these complex challenges, collaborative approaches to watershed governance have increasingly been adopted in the United States, but very few studies have yet to systematically assess their true effectiveness. This book addresses a significant gap in research by undertaking a comprehensive study of alternative, collaborative structures and whether these produce better water quality outcomes than traditional regulatory governance. Analyzing almost one quarter of US watersheds and examining both the revealed and perceived outcomes of watershed stakeholder collaboration, it is the first large-scale study on this topic. The insights the chapters provide will equip readers with a nuanced and generalizable understanding of the effectiveness of collaboration in natural resource management, which will be of great interest to researchers and practitioners in wide-ranging environmental and public policy roles.

Dr. David P. Adams is an Associate Professor of Public Administration and MPA Director at California State University, Fullerton. His research examines collaborative governance, administrative discretion, and environmental policy, with an emphasis on watershed management, institutional resilience, and regulatory practice. He received Auburn University's Distinguished Dissertation Award in 2016 and has since published in Policy Studies Journal, Administrative Theory & Praxis, Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning, and Journal of Politics and Policy, among others. He is co-editor of Ethics in Public Administration: Ethics, Corruption, and Public Policy (Cognella, 2019) and teaches courses in public administration theory, the policy process, and collaborative governance.

Dr. Jonathan M. Fisk is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Affairs at the University of Utah, where he also serves as the Associate Director for the Master of Public Administration and Master of Public Policy programs. Prior to his appointment at the University of Utah, he served as an Assistant as well as an Associate Professor of Political Science at Auburn University. He is also the Chairperson for the American Society for Public Administration's Section of Environment and Natural Resource Administration. He has published widely on intergovernmental relations as well as environmental, water, and energy policy for more than a decade. He is the author or co-author of five books, including Oil and Gas Governance: Subnational Politics of Induced Seismicity in Ohio and Oklahoma (2025, Routledge, with Zachary Mahafza, Joseph A. Aistrup, and Lorraine W. Wolf); The Drought Dilemma: Pathways to Innovation for a Water-Stressed Future (2024, Routledge, with Jonathan Farley and John C. Morris); The Shale Renaissance: How Fracking Changed Pennsylvania in the 21st Century (2022, University of Pittsburgh Press, with Soren Jordan and A.J. Good); Intergovernmental Relations: State and Local Challenges in the 21st Century (2022, Routledge); and The Fracking Debate: Intergovernmental Politics of the Oil and Gas Renaissance, Second Edition (2017, Routledge). In addition, he has published more than forty peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters in leading outlets such as Policy Studies Journal, Administrative Theory and Praxis, American Review of Public Administration, Public Works Management and Policy, Society and Natural Resources, Review of Policy Research, and State and Local Government Review.

John C. Morris is a Professor and Dean's Distinguished Research Fellow in the Department of Political Science at Auburn University, and Visiting Researcher at the University Twente, Enschede, the Netherlands. He has studied environmental policy and water policy for more than thirty years and has published widely in public administration and public policy. Among other volumes, he is the co-editor of Speaking Green with a Southern Accent: Environmental Management and Innovation in the South (Lexington Press, 2010), and True Green: Executive Effectiveness in the US Environmental Protection Agency (Lexington Press, 2012). His recent books include The Case for Grassroots Collaboration: Social Capital and Ecosystem Restoration at the Local Level (with William A. Gibson, William M. Leavitt, and Shana C. Jones , Lexington Press, 2013); Organizational Motivation for Collaboration: Theory and Evidence (withLuisa M. Diaz-Kope , Lexington, 2019); Interorganizational Interactions for Watershed Protection: Working Better Together (with Madeleine W. McNamara, Routledge, 2020); and Clean Water Policy and State Choice: Promise and Performance in the Water Quality Act (Cambridge, 2022). His most recent book is The Drought Dilemma: Pathways to Innovation for a Water-Stressed Future (2024, Routledge, with Jonathan D. Farley and Jonathan M. Fisk,). In addition, he has published more than ninety articles in peer-reviewed journals, and more than forty book chapters, reports, and other publications.