Exploring Social Media-Enabled Environmental Governance in India’s Namami Gange Programme: An Expert-Based DEMATEL–ISM Study

This study develops an exploratory expert-based structural model of social media-enabled environmental governance (SMeEG) in India’s Namami Gange Programme. Drawing on collaborative governance, digital governance and public value perspectives, the study defines and examines thirteen interrelated constructs that may shape the perceived functioning of digitally mediated environmental governance. Judgements from a twelve-member expert panel were analysed using an integrated Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL)–Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) procedure. DEMATEL was used to identify relative influence, prominence and net-effect positions, while ISM was used to derive an interpretive reachability hierarchy. The analysis places digital infrastructure and platform accessibility, government commitment and policy support, governance transparency and accountability, and citizens’ digital literacy among the most influential foundational conditions in the expert-perceived system. Multi-stakeholder collaboration occupies an intermediate coordinating position, while trust, social listening, communication, awareness, influencer participation and citizen engagement occupy progressively more dependent positions. Environmental governance effectiveness appears as the ultimate outcome node. These findings should be interpreted as expert-perceived structural relationships rather than estimates of observed causal effects or empirically validated temporal sequences. The study contributes an exploratory structural framework that can guide subsequent survey, case-based or longitudinal validation in the Namami Gange context and comparable environmental-governance settings.