Adaptive Governance to Achieve Both Socio-Economic and Ecological Outcomes: Lessons from the New York City Watershed

Watershed governance arrangements can deliver environmental protection while lacking clear institutional mechanisms to address their socio-economic commitments to watershed communities. This paper examines how watershed decision makers and leaders interpret such commitments in the New York City (NYC) Watershed which has been managed to supply drinking water for NYC for three decades under a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA). Using an adaptive governance framework, the study draws on twenty-four semi-structured interviews with stakeholders engaged in governance of the MOA. Findings show that interviewees recognized the MOA as a collaborative arrangement that advanced water quality protection, but identified tradeoffs related to land-use restrictions, constrained economic development, and limited visibility of socio-economic benefits. The paper argues that ecological goals have stronger feedback mechanisms than socio-economic commitments, limiting learning and adjustment. It advances adaptive governance scholarship by showing how feedback mechanisms can help translate socio-economic commitments into monitoring, learning, and adjustment over time.