From dyad to triad: reconfiguring the science–policy–practice interface for sustainable groundwater governance in Pakistan

Abstract Groundwater governance often fails not because evidence is missing, but because knowledge, authority and everyday water use decisions remain weakly connected. This is especially acute in decentralised agrarian systems where farmers effectively manage aquifers through cumulative on-farm choices yet remain marginal to formal knowledge production and policy deliberation. Drawing on co-design-informed workshops with farmers, scientists and policymakers in Punjab and Sindh, Pakistan, this study diagnoses how the science–policy–practice interface (SPPI) breaks down and why technically credible interventions often lack traction. Using credibility–relevance–legitimacy (CREL) as an evaluative lens, we show that Pakistan’s groundwater SPPI remains largely dyadic and episodic, characterised by weak translation, absent feedback loops, fragmented intermediaries and limited farmer participation. To address this structural mismatch, we reconceptualise SPPI from a science–policy dyad to a farmer-inclusive triad and extend CREL by explicitly distinguishing implementation effectiveness as the outcome of co-produced knowledge. We synthesise these insights in the TRIDENT framework (Triadic Relational Interface for Decentralised Environmental Natural-resource Transitions), which proposes theoretically informed relationships linking participation, boundary roles and multi-directional flows to credible, relevant, legitimate and implementable governance outcomes. While grounded in Pakistan’s Indus Basin, the framework offers transferable mechanisms for groundwater-dependent socio-ecological systems across the Global South.