The politics of knowledge use in wastewater management -a systematic literature review

Roald Leeuwerik^1,2*Yim Ming Connie Kwong¹Marie Fujitani^1,2

• ¹Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (LG), Bremen, Germany
• ²University of Bremen, Bremen, Bremen, Germany

Previous research demonstrates that stakeholders possess diverse knowledge concerning wastewater impacts and appropriate management strategies. Importantly, these different kinds of knowledge are situated in a political context that influences whose knowledge is used to shape local management. While a better understanding of drivers behind the use of knowledge may enable decision-makers to include more stakeholders, a comprehensive review of the state of the literature is still lacking. To respond to this gap, this systematic literature review was conducted. Gray and peer-reviewed literature published between 1990 and 2023 that explores the politics of knowledge use in wastewater management were included. This review shows that decision-makers adopt a wide range of management strategies and that a variety of factors can influence the use of knowledge across these management strategies. While there appears to be a recognition for the value of more localized and alternative forms of decision-making, this review shows that local "non-expert" knowledge is still commonly excluded and that decision-making is strongly driven by legal, scientific and engineering perspectives. This poses the risk of rendering management initiatives and associated outcomes less effective due to an ill-fit to local needs and/or a lack of support. To further improve knowledge inclusion, there is a call for improving the transparency around knowledge use in decision-making, for finding ways to bridge different knowledge systems, and to facilitate local decision-making. To determine how these recommendations can be best adapted in different situations, there is a need for more context-specific research.