Transdisciplinary Approaches to Hydrology and Water Resources Management: a Meta-Discourse Analysis
Abstract
A scientific decade on change in hydrology and society requires the perspectives of those disciplines which have traditionally been concerned with society, the social and policy sciences, as well as of society itself. Transdisciplinary research deals with socially relevant problems, with a clear urgency and relevance for decision-making. It is especially useful when multiple stakeholders, are affected by a similar situation, yet are independent in their views, values and agendas. Although there is no broadly accepted framework for transdisciplinary knowledge integration, terms like participatory research, public participation, stakeholder engagement and transdisciplinarity are used to describe interdisciplinary research with the aim to integrate academic and non-academic data in knowledge production and learning. Transdisciplinary approaches address these issues through participatory research and a co-production of knowledge between scientists and other societal actors. Transdisciplinary approaches, as we define them, seek to understand how multiple societal perspectives can be combined with hydrological perspectives to create new ways of approaching socio-hydrological questions, such as drought management, flood prevention or adaptive delta management. The aim of this contribution is to describe and evaluate recent and ongoing discourse in transdisciplinary water research based on experiences convening consecutive years of the European Geosciences Union PICO Session, "Hydrology & Society: Transdisciplinary approaches to hydrology and water resources management." This meta-analysis of session contributions utilizes discourse analysis to investigate the development of transdisciplinary discourse in hydrology and water resources management. We show the evolution of transdisciplinary approaches in terms of research questions, theoretical discourses and methodological approaches, case studies and lessons learned in this field. This meta-analysis sheds light into where transdisciplinary socio-hydrology has been and where it is headed, as well as gaps in our discourse. Our contribution directly addresses questions raised in the call for abstracts for session H133L Water and Society: Water Resources Management and Policy in a Changing World.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFM.H21Q1959L
- Keywords:
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- 1880 Water management;
- HYDROLOGYDE: 6319 Institutions;
- POLICY SCIENCESDE: 6344 System operation and management;
- POLICY SCIENCESDE: 6620 Science policy;
- PUBLIC ISSUES