Water Governance: Cross-Sectoral Problematization of Drought in Southern Germany Over Time.

Due to climate change, droughts are expected to become more frequent in many parts of the world in the future, including in Southern Germany. In situations characterized by a lack of water, a prioritization of different water uses and thus also water users becomes central. This may lead to an increasing politicization of water distribution. There is no drought directive neither on German nor on European level. The paper examines the role of ideas and narratives in the policymaking process and analyzes the social construction of policy problems and responses that are linked to droughts. Since drought management is characterized by risk and uncertainty, knowledge production and expertise on drought impacts and drought responses strongly influence the decision-making. The definitions of policy problems do not exist before policymaking starts, i.e. are not pre-political, but are part of a deliberative process and thus represent the results of power relations. Following the argumentative turn in policy analysis, we adopt a social-constructivist approach that does not take problems as pre-existing and given, but socially constructed and framed. We define framing as the powerful process by which issues, decisions, or events acquire different meanings from different perspectives. Frames promote particular definitions and interpretations of political issues. Problem definition is a powerful process as is may be seen as a result of a social interaction in which stakeholders as well as politicians address agency and responsibility in order to judge, interpret and justify potential political action. We analyze the process of problem definition by means of a frame analysis and develop a power-sensitive, dynamic approach. The paper features a cross-sectoral and longitudinal research design. We analyze how foresters, farmers, and water managers in Baden-Württemberg frame and re-frame drought over time, asking what problem definitions they give, what solutions they propose, and who they consider responsible for both problems and solutions. We use about 2,500 articles in technical journals that are published by unions of the most cited drought-affected economic sectors and function as a mouthpiece, covering national and regional level. We compare the framing processes of the four most-cited drought events in Baden-Württemberg: 1947, 1975/76, 2003, and 2011/12. We identify narratives that stakeholders use for telling stories about their problems, including their own roles (for example, as drought victims with the right to subsidies). We conclude that farmers politicize drought as they address the responsibility to act to politicians and frame drought as a public problem that is strongly connected to food security. We show how security framings interact with politicization and evolve over time. In contrast foresters frequently frame droughts as part of climate change. Problems are named as forest decline, pests and forest fires. Foresters mostly address scientists as responsible to provide technocratic solutions. Water managers address problem-solving responsibility to both politicians and scientists depending on the framed policy issue.