Strategic intermediation: Between regional strategy and local practice

The core aspiration of the WFD is that through a focus on hydrological boundariesthe development of integrated river basin management (IRBM) will overcome thepreviously fragmented directives relevant to water and develop a more holisticapproach to sustainable water management. In this paper we focus on the signifi cantrole that intermediary organizations, often neglected in conventional analysis, play inwater governance processes. We use three case study examples of intermediariesworking in the North-West of England to illustrate the importance of understandingtheir work in translating sustainable water management from regional strategy to localpractice. Critically, the work of intermediaries across different scales of practiceinvolves a complex array of negotiation, (re)representation and translation of what‘sustainable water management’ becomes in relation to different contexts. Theirstrength comes in their ability to adapt their relationship to water into different setsof interests and contexts without necessarily integrating these interests. Copyright ©2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment