management institutions, are derived from the institutional analysis literature relating to water or other natural resource management and to decentralized systems (especially Ostrom 1990, 1992; also Agrawal 2000; Alaerts 1999; Blomquist and Schlager 1999; Bromley 1999; Easter and Hearne 1993; Wunsch 1991).

Our information gathering and analysis focuses on the following sets of variables.

- Contextual factors and initial conditions

- Characteristics of the decentralization process

- Characteristics of central government/basin-level relationships and capacities

- The internal configuration of basin-level institutional arrangements

- Motivation of stakeholders

Variables considered within each set are listed in the appendix. The Warta Basin case is discussed in terms of these categories and variables in Section 8.

# **3. Methodology**

A case study approach was pursued for this project in order to examine closely the processes of institutional change as well as the current situation. An expert in environmental policy facilitated the site visit, arranging interviews and preparing a background paper on the basin prior to the visit (Tonderski and Blomquist 2003). Background papers for all case study visits are based on a common outline. During the site visit, team members met with and interviewed 14 individuals, including central and local government officials, staff of the river basin authority, and academic researchers with perspectives on governmental structure and water management in Poland.<sup>2</sup> The semi-structured interviews were conducted with a view to understanding the processes of institutional origin and change within the Warta basin, the incentives of different stakeholders related to such change, and the performance of water management institutions at sub-basin, basin, and national scales, matters that were closely within the knowledge of the interviewees. After the visit, team members combined their notes from the interviews, revisited and revised the basin background paper, reviewed other materials, and composed this summary and analysis.<sup>3</sup> The following analysis of the Warta basin case is therefore based on a combination of sources—documentary materials on Poland and the Warta basin, the background paper prepared for the visit, and the interviews conducted during the site visit. The findings and conclusions therefore do not represent the point of view of a single individual or organization, but emerge from a composite of data collected and reviewed by the research project team.

> 2 Organizations from which individuals were interviewed included the Polish Bureau of Water Management, the State Council of Water Management, the Regional Water Management Authority in Poznań and in a local office in Skeczniew, the Department of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of the Voivodeship of Wielkepolski, the Wielkepolski Voivodeship Fund for Environmental Protection, the Poviat of Poznań, the Municipality of Poznań, the Poznań Water Utility, the Municipality of Tarnowo Podgorne, and the Tarnowo Podgorne Inspectorate of Environmental Protection.

> 3 A review and extensive comments on an earlier draft of this paper were provided by Krystian Piechowiak, and are greatly appreciated.

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