Hybrid Governance Arrangements for Urban Infrastructure Transitions: Comparing the Adoption of Onsite Water Reuse in San Francisco and New York City

Decentralized water reuse technologies are increasingly being explored as a transformative approach for complementing centralized water and wastewater infrastructure. A transition to onsite water reuse requires a better understanding of how urban infrastructures are governed. While governance tends to be discussed within ideal types-i.e., hierarchy, market, and network-researchers increasingly recognize that infrastructure transitions often depend on hybrid mixtures of two or all three of those ideal types. This study draws on literature on the governance of infrastructure transitions as well as on the geography of sustainability transitions to introduce an analytical framework for assessing how the same technology-in this case, onsite water reuse-is implemented with different hybrid governance arrangements in different cities. By juxtaposing the transition trajectory to onsite water reuse in San Francisco and New York City, we empirically illustrate two ideal-type hybrid governance arrangements that systematically differ in terms of key actor types and coordination mechanisms.

Automated summary

Decentralized water reuse technologies are being explored as a complement to centralized water and wastewater infrastructure. This study examines the governance of infrastructure transitions and introduces an analytical framework for assessing how onsite water reuse is implemented with different hybrid governance arrangements in different cities, illustrated by the cases of San Francisco and New York City.