Partnerships for success: collaborative governance in urban waters restoration

Urban river restoration is gaining popularity in cities around the world as rivers are increasingly recognized for their social, cultural, and economic value. As rivers are restored and reimagined, the role of partnerships between local communities, government, and non-governmental organizations in advancing ecological and social goals becomes critical. Drawing from the rich scholarship on collaborative governance, we examine the perceived successes and challenges of the Urban Waters Federal Partnership (UWFP), a program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency along with 14 federal agency partners. This empirical study uses a qualitative multimethod approach combining document analysis and expert interviews. Our findings reveal how UWFP ambassadors serve as local champions who facilitate collaborative work within partnership sites. We uncover what we refer to as fluid embeddedness, in which the flexible structure of the UWFP allows ambassadors embedded in a larger federal partnership to adapt and move in and out of the federal component as best suits the audience and situation. We analyze how UWFP ambassadors skillfully weave together a patchwork of funding based on differing environmental and economic factors and other federal designations. Finally, we identify the emerging challenge of homelessness in urban river restoration.