Keywords

IWRM, review, simulation results, stakeholder involvement, science integration

Start Date

26-6-2018 2:00 PM

End Date

26-6-2018 3:20 PM

Abstract

Research and application of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) aims at combining the strengths of both social and biophysical sciences to merge stakeholder preferences and negotiation with natural resource modelling. In theory, each of these fields (biophysical modelling and social science) should, on average, equally contribute to the resulting management or policy outcome. This we would see as ‘optimal’. This then raises the question, whether this can be identified from reported individual case studies. In this study, we used a data mining approach on the literature, seeking to identify clear examples of integration of biophysical modelling and social science, the importance of each of the components in the outcome and whether this has led to improved management and policy outcomes.

We first did a general search on all papers in the IWRM field, followed by a subset using search terms that combine (AND) synonyms of “biophysical modelling” and “social science”. There was qualitatively no difference between generated word clouds (which highlight the importance ranking of words) between the full IWRM set and the subsets.

In addition, delving into the detail, there were very few papers where both biophysical modelling and social science approaches were equally applied, such as in participatory modelling. Even fewer papers showed evidence that the resulting IWRM approach resulted in changes in management or policies.

More generally, the case studies in the papers could be classified in the following three themes:

  • Cases that mainly demonstrate a numerical modelling approach

  • Cases that mainly reported on the social processes and stakeholder consultations in IWRM

  • Cases that demonstrated an integrated modelling approach including stakeholder involvement, but there was no evidence of integration in management or policy

Overall this suggest that there is a need for more reports on how social science, stakeholder consultation integrates best with simulation modelling in practice and what inhibits integration of the two fields in the practice of IWRM.

Stream and Session

Stream C: Integrated Social, Economic, Ecological, and Infrastructural Modeling

C15: Does Data and Science Make a Difference for Better Decisions in Environmental Management?

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Jun 26th, 2:00 PM Jun 26th, 3:20 PM

Examples of optimal integration in the IWRM field:a review

Research and application of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) aims at combining the strengths of both social and biophysical sciences to merge stakeholder preferences and negotiation with natural resource modelling. In theory, each of these fields (biophysical modelling and social science) should, on average, equally contribute to the resulting management or policy outcome. This we would see as ‘optimal’. This then raises the question, whether this can be identified from reported individual case studies. In this study, we used a data mining approach on the literature, seeking to identify clear examples of integration of biophysical modelling and social science, the importance of each of the components in the outcome and whether this has led to improved management and policy outcomes.

We first did a general search on all papers in the IWRM field, followed by a subset using search terms that combine (AND) synonyms of “biophysical modelling” and “social science”. There was qualitatively no difference between generated word clouds (which highlight the importance ranking of words) between the full IWRM set and the subsets.

In addition, delving into the detail, there were very few papers where both biophysical modelling and social science approaches were equally applied, such as in participatory modelling. Even fewer papers showed evidence that the resulting IWRM approach resulted in changes in management or policies.

More generally, the case studies in the papers could be classified in the following three themes:

  • Cases that mainly demonstrate a numerical modelling approach

  • Cases that mainly reported on the social processes and stakeholder consultations in IWRM

  • Cases that demonstrated an integrated modelling approach including stakeholder involvement, but there was no evidence of integration in management or policy

Overall this suggest that there is a need for more reports on how social science, stakeholder consultation integrates best with simulation modelling in practice and what inhibits integration of the two fields in the practice of IWRM.