Toward sustainable watershed management: A case study of san francisquito creek watershed

Abstract

This paper employs the complex adaptive system approach to explore a process by which collective action emerges among a number of different stakeholder organizations in a functionally-integrated space. The exploration is to investigate the learning process of the organizations and to identify the critical factors that facilitate and prohibit learning and ensuing change. This case study of San Francisquito Creek watershed management shows that information search and exchange activities of individual actors in the system lead to the learning of shared nature of problems and have them change the pattern of interaction and build shared understanding about managing watersheds. The change to collective action through information exchange is an essential part of maintaining the sustainability of the watershed and of generating collective action of individual actors. © 2007 International Review of Public Administration.