Jesper Svensson

Water allocation and collective action in China: state, market and community responses to scarcity and freshwater variability

Jesper Svensson completed his degree in 2022. He was reading for a DPhil at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford. He holds a Master of Science in Asian Studies from Lund University, and two Bachelor's degree in Political Science and Environmental Science from School of Business, Economics and Law at University of Gothenburg. Prior to joining University of Oxford, Jesper worked as a Research Assistant for the Transboundary Rivers and Adaptation to Climate Extremes in North America (TRACE - North America) project under Dr Dustin Evan Garrick. Previously, he was a Visiting Scholar at China Academy of Sciences where he conducted research on the water-energy-food nexus in the Yellow River Basin.

Jesper's doctoral thesis investigates factors that enhance or reduce resilience to freshwater variability in domestic river basins and their water allocation regimes in China. Many rivers confront trade-offs between economic development and protecting ecosystems, epitomizing many of the tensions linking water allocation with social conflict. Using a mixed-methods approach, it explores whether and how different institutional configurations are associated with success and failure in governing domestic Chinese rivers.

• Xiang, X., Svensson, J. and Jia, S. (2016) Will the energy industry drain the water used for agricultural irrigation in the Yellow River basin? International Journal of Water Resources Development. pp. 1-12.
• Jia, S., Sun, Y., Svensson, J. and Mukherjee, M. (2016) Comparative analysis of water rights entitlements in India and China. Water Policy.