The management and organization of water resources shapes complex territorial scenarios. This is seen in south-central Chile, where the construction of hydropower plants in Indigenous territories has strained relations between the state, the Mapuche people and hydropower companies. We analyze the Indigenous consultation process to identify the relations between actors and the role of state institutions to evaluate the extent to which these facilitate collective action. Using a case study methodology and qualitative analysis, we identify challenges to water governance, which relate to the degree of heterogeneity of communities; power inequalities within the consultation process and their influence on structures of decision-making.

In Chile, an Atmospheric Decontamination Plan (PDA) has been developed to reduce concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) in cities deemed “saturated” with these particles. The plan includes various measures, such as the thermal insulation of homes and the replacement of heaters. This study presents an analysis of the indices of four indoor air quality variables (temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide, and PM 2.5) in different types of homes with varying levels of PDA implementation in the city of Temuco, Chile. Regarding the temperature variable, only one type of home was found to be within comfort limits, with an average of 20.6 °C and a variation of ±3.52 °C (SD). Concerning humidity, independently owned homes with complete and moderate ADP implementation had average humidity levels between 64.82% ± 7.19% and 55.6% ± 6.11%, respectively. For CO₂, only homes with moderate implementation showed averages slightly below (average 991 ppm) the maximum allowed (1000 ppm). As for PM 2.5, all homes exceeded the standard, ranging from 44.4 µg/m³ to 130 µg/m³, with very high variations. This demonstrates that PM 2.5 concentrations consistently exceeded the limits established by the World Health Organization (15 µg/m³).

The sustainable transformation of society is one of the greatest challenges of our time. Universities are central actors for knowledge generation and transfer in the sustainability field and, at the same time, are facing the question of how they can become sustainable social actors and make their activities and infrastructure sustainable. Against this background, the 16 member universities of the State Rectors’ Conference of North Rhine-Westphalia have joined forces in the Humboldtⁿ initiative to pool their efforts in the field of sustainability and to anchor generational responsibility for sustainable action in research, teaching, administration, infrastructure, and transfer. How the joint responsibility for the questions for the future in the aforementioned complex of topics is addressed via Humboldtⁿ and which focal points are set in the process will be presented and discussed using examples from the institutional sustainability transformation and examples from the research area from RWTH Aachen University. In this way, the implementation of transformation processes at universities and their possible blueprint effect can be illuminated.

Governance is defined as the coordination of collective action (Jessop, 1998), interests, and resources of actors in pursuit of commonly accepted objectives (Glückler et al., 2019) to resolve conflicts at different geographical scales (Hommes & Boelens, 2017). The governance approach focuses on transformations in the administrative functions of the state, as well as on the configuration of networks among actors in the public and private sectors (Rhodes, 1996). This allows for a deeper understanding of how "dynamic interaction processes aim to propose solutions to particular problems, such as resource use, thereby addressing the interactions between state and non-state actors" (Höhl et al., 2021, p. 3). Against this background, Gupta et al. (2013) define the global water crisis as a governance crisis. Since access to and use of water depend not only on infrastructural and technical development, but also on regulatory norms, these factors lead to complex political challenges at different geographical scales. Consequently, issues in water governance need to be addressed by referring to "the context in which people and their societies interact with water" (Woodhouse & Muller, 2017, p. 229). A governance approach enables the identification of the heterogeneous rules and procedures of how water access and use are organized and framed, thereby including "the ways in which societies organize themselves to make decisions and take action regarding water" (de Loë & Patterson, 2017, p. 76f).