Cost-effective water quality improvement: a framework for cooperative wetland development

There is a need to find solutions that allow for cost-effective water quality improvement in New Zealand. This research paper looks at one of these solutions; cooperatively developed large constructed wetlands, whereby a group of enterprises in a area pool their resources together and build a large constructed wetland that mitigates their contaminant losses more cost-effectively than if they each undertook individual mitigations on their own properties.This research paper assesses the cooperative wetland development solution through the lens of the Institutional Analysis and Development framework. It is hoped that this research paper will advance the discussion of cooperatively developing wetlands and the issue of cost-effective water quality improvement in general.

This research paper was written by Will Collin as part of the Victoria University Masters of Public Policy programme, with supervision from Suzi Kerr, Senior Fellow at Motu Economic and Public Policy Research. In 2018, this research was awarded the Holmes prize for best research paper on an issue of public policy or public management of importance to New Zealand. Will now works as a policy advisor at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

Citation

Collin, William Garrett. 2017. "Cost-effective water quality improvement: a framework for cooperative wetland development." GOVT562, Research Paper, Masters of Public Policy, School of Government, Victoria University of Wellington