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Wai Fung Lam

Bio: Wai Fung Lam is an academic researcher from University of Hong Kong. The author has contributed to research in topics: Irrigation management & Irrigation. The author has an hindex of 14, co-authored 50 publications receiving 1206 citations. Previous affiliations of Wai Fung Lam include Indiana University & Asian Institute of Technology.


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Book
01 May 1998
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a pdf version of their book Governing Irrigation Systems in Nepal: Institutions, Infrastructure, and Collective Action in pdf format, which is available in ePub, DjVu, PDF, doc, and txt formats.
Abstract: If you are searching for the ebook by Wai Fung Lam Governing Irrigation Systems in Nepal: Institutions, Infrastructure, and Collective Action in pdf form, then you have come on to loyal site. We present full variation of this ebook in ePub, DjVu, PDF, doc, txt forms. You can read Governing Irrigation Systems in Nepal: Institutions, Infrastructure, and Collective Action online either downloading. Moreover, on our website you can read guides and other art eBooks online, or load them as well. We want invite note what our website not store the book itself, but we give ref to the website wherever you can load either reading online. So that if want to load pdf by Wai Fung Lam Governing Irrigation Systems in Nepal: Institutions, Infrastructure, and Collective Action, then you have come on to the faithful site. We own Governing Irrigation Systems in Nepal: Institutions, Infrastructure, and Collective Action PDF, txt, DjVu, doc, ePub formats. We will be pleased if you will be back to us anew.

338 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the successful experience of irrigation governance and management in Taiwan as a means of understanding how joint efforts can be established and sustained through institutional arrangements, including a careful definition of the scope of farmers' participation, complementarity of interests between individuals, reduction of asymmetries involved in the use of authority, and the existence of domains of autonomy.

222 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that technological investments might exacerbate the asymmetries of interests and endowments among irrigators, which often dampens their incentives to contribute to infrastructure maintenance.

94 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the process and impact of an innovative irrigation assistance project that was initially undertaken in Nepal in the mid-1980s and analyzed data obtained over three time periods related to changes in system structure and performance over time.
Abstract: Improving irrigation systems in Asian countries has been a high priority for the allocation of international aid. Substantial funds have been allocated to adopt the “best practices” of hiring external water engineers to construct modern systems to replace those that farmers built. These expensive investments have infrequently led to long-term improvement in the operation of irrigation systems in Asia. In this article, we examine the process and impact of an innovative irrigation assistance project that was initially undertaken in Nepal in the mid-1980s. We analyze data obtained over three time periods related to changes in system structure and performance over time. We trace the unfolding patterns of improved engineering infrastructure across time depending on the way it interacts with other factors to affect long-term irrigation performance. We examine some of the key variables that are likely to affect the diverse and complex patterns of change. We also undertake analysis of the configural impact of core variables using Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). We find that the initial and later investments in system infrastructure are only one factor that helps to generate short-term improvement. Unless farmers encourage local entrepreneurs and organize themselves, create their own rules or use sanctions, and augment their rules through collective action, infrastructure investment alone is not sufficient to achieve sustainable higher performance.

79 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the social and institutional factors affecting performance of farmer and agency-managed irrigation systems in Nepal and found that strong institutional bases such as effective imposition of fine, social sanctions and employment of local monitors created conducive environment for rule following and mutual trust among the users and yielded higher irrigation performance.
Abstract: In this paper, we briefly overview the institutions involved with the interventions in the irrigation sector development along with the process of intervention in Asia in general and Nepal in particular. Then we discuss methodological procedures employed in the study. We then describe the context of irrigation management and examine the social and institutional factors affecting performance of farmer and agency-managed irrigation systems. Based on the analysis of 231 farmer-and-agency managed irrigation systems in Nepal, the important result of the study is that farmer-managed irrigation systems with stronger institutional bases such as effective imposition of fine, social sanctions and employment of local monitors created conducive environment for rule following and mutual trust among the users and yielded higher irrigation performance. The policy implication of the study is that the social and institutional support are important aspects of irrigation management; and thus, improving irrigation management suggests a socio-technical approach emphasising variations in both physical structure and human dimensions of user activities which can produce productive, equitable, cost-effective and ecologically sound irrigation performance.

60 citations


Cited by
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Reading a book as this basics of qualitative research grounded theory procedures and techniques and other references can enrich your life quality.

13,415 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
Elinor Ostrom1
TL;DR: The Logic of Collective Action (LCA) as mentioned in this paper was a seminal work in modern democratic thought that challenged the assumption that groups would tend to form and take collective action in democratic societies.
Abstract: With the publication of The Logic of Collective Action in 1965, Mancur Olson challenged a cherished foundation of modern democratic thought that groups would tend to form and take collective action...

3,231 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
09 Apr 1999-Science
TL;DR: New insights about the management of large-scale resources that depend on international cooperation and the conditions most likely to favor sustainable uses of common-pool resources are discussed.
Abstract: In a seminal paper, Garrett Hardin argued in 1968 that users of a commons are caught in an inevitable process that leads to the destruction of the resources on which they depend. This article discusses new insights about such problems and the conditions most likely to favor sustainable uses of common-pool resources. Some of the most difficult challenges concern the management of large-scale resources that depend on international cooperation, such as fresh water in international basins or large marine ecosystems. Institutional diversity may be as important as biological diversity for our long-term survival.

2,463 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors develop an analytical framework for analyzing rural livelihoods in terms of their sustainability and their implications for rural poverty, arguing that the analysis of rural livelihood needs to understand people's access to five types of capital asset and the ways in which they combine and transform those assets in the building of livelihoods that as far as possible meet their material and their experiential needs.

2,143 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe the intellectual journey that has taken the last half century from when they began graduate studies in the late 1950s to the development of the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework.
Abstract: Contemporary research on the outcomes of diverse institutional arrangements for governing common-pool resources (CPRs ) and public goods at multiple scales builds on classical economic theory while developing new theory to explain phenomena that do not fit in a dichotomous world of “the market” and “the state.” Scholars are slowly shifting from positing simple systems to using more complex frameworks, theories, and models to understand the diversity of puzzles and problems facing humans interacting in contemporary societies. The humans we study have complex motivational structures and establish diverse private-for-profit, governmental, and com munity institutional arrangements that operate at multiple scales to generate productive and inno vative as well as destructive and perverse outcomes ( Douglass C. North 1990, 2005 ). In this article, I will describe the intellectual journey that I have taken the last half century from when I began graduate studies in the late 1950s. The early efforts to understand the poly centric water industry in California were formative for me. In addition to working with Vincent Ostrom and Charles M. Tiebout as they formulated the concept of polycentric systems for gov erning metropolitan areas, I studied the efforts of a large group of private and public water producers facing the problem of an overdrafted groundwater basin on the coast and watching saltwater intrusion threaten the possibility of long term use. Then, in the 1970s, I participated with colleagues in the study of polycentric police industries serving US metropolitan areas to find that the dominant theory underlying massive reform proposals was incorrect. Metropolitan areas served by a combination of large and small producers could achieve economies of scale in the production of some police services and avoid diseconomies of scale in the production of others. These early empirical studies led over time to the development of the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework. A common framework consistent with game theory enabled us to undertake a variety of empirical studies including a meta-analysis of a large number of existing case studies on common-pool resource systems around the world. Carefully designed experimental studies in the lab have enabled us to test precise combinations of structural vari ables to find that isolated, anonymous individuals overharvest from common-pool resources. Simply allowing communication, or “cheap talk,” enables participants to reduce overharvest ing and increase joint payoffs contrary to game theoretical predictions. Large studies of irrigation systems in Nepal and forests around the world challenge the presumption that governments always do a better job than users in organizing and protecting important resources.

2,034 citations