Out of Sight: How Can Hidden Informal User Knowledge Influence the Science-Policy Interface of Groundwater Systems in the Limpopo Province, South Africa?
Abstract
In light of groundwater's increasing role in the water security of semi-arid regions under escalating environmental change, it is essential to establish effective policies and practices to guide its sustainable management. To better understand the science-policy-practice interfaces in groundwater systems, we must understand human behaviour and responses to scientific information and policies at a local level. To do so, integration of formal scientific advice into policy must be tailored to local groundwater user behaviour, perspectives and experiences - beyond commonplace emphasis on technical knowledge, which can be difficult to advance in many regions.
Much groundwater research focuses on the technical; this presentation will rather highlight how the heterogeneity and uncertainty within groundwater systems dictate a more holistic approach that encompasses multiple knowledge systems, including local-level informal knowledge frequently viewed as unscientific, anecdotal and unverifiable. Empirical case-study evidence from an aquifer in the small farming town Mogwadi (Dendron) - in the Limpopo Province, South Africa - is used to exemplify how farmer perceptions of downscaled scientific information in the form of seasonal climate forecasts and groundwater status reports affect user behaviour. Formal and informal management mechanisms were critically analysed using semi-structured interviews, workshops and participant observation. The case study emphasises the need for technical approaches to groundwater management to avoid perpetuating apolitical ontologies that reinforce existing power asymmetries, as shown by relations between commercial farmers, poor black farmers, scientists and governmental bodies. Like groundwater itself, local knowledge systems are often a hidden resource. This presentation calls for a move beyond uncritical calls for "increased stakeholder participation" and generalised frameworks in groundwater management practices, that do little more than scratch the surface.- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFM.H11U1752F
- Keywords:
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- 1630 Impacts of global change;
- GLOBAL CHANGEDE: 1803 Anthropogenic effects;
- HYDROLOGYDE: 1880 Water management;
- HYDROLOGYDE: 4303 Hydrological;
- NATURAL HAZARDS