TY - JOUR
T1 - Understanding knowledge needs for Scotland to become a resilient Hydro Nation: Water stakeholder perspectives
AU - Adams, Kerr J.
AU - Metzger, Marc J.
AU - Macleod, Christopher (kit) J.a.
AU - Helliwell, Rachel C.
AU - Pohle, Ina
N1 - Funding Information:
Scottish Funding Council, Hydro Nation Scholars Programme, 2018.
Funding Information:
Our findings can be considered a first step in building resilience, as the ‘knowledge needs’ can be used to set research and funding themes in Scotland. Within the Scottish context, the Scottish Government use the Strategy for Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Research to fund a 5-year strategic research programme. Scotland’s Centre of Expertise for Waters (CREW) is an example of a research hub funded by the 5-year strategic research programme. CREW coordinates research activities across Scotland’s Higher Education Institutes, government and the water sector to support the development of water policy in Scotland ( Greig and Rathjen, 2021 ). Our identified ‘knowledge needs’ can be used to inform research themes within research hubs such as CREW and funding bodies such as the Scottish Government. We therefore support the Hydro Nation agenda by co-constructing and identifying relevant research themes with water sector stakeholders, which can be used to inform water-related policy to help achieve a resilient Hydro Nation agenda.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors
PY - 2022/10/1
Y1 - 2022/10/1
N2 - Freshwater resources provide ecosystem services that support human prosperity and development. Future changes in climate, land-use, and population could lead to detrimental impacts on freshwater quality and quantity, threatening drinking water, irrigation and energy production. To increase resilience there is the need to better understand the possible impacts of future changes on freshwaters. We use Scotland – and its legislative agenda ‘Scotland: The Hydro Nation’ – to understand the knowledge needs of water stakeholders as a first step in building freshwater resilience. By interviewing water stakeholders across Scotland, we found an overarching ‘knowledge need’ for a greater understanding of the cumulative impacts on freshwaters associated with the interactions between multiple climatic and socio-economic drivers and their associated pressures. Stakeholders also identified five specific ‘knowledge need’ themes; large-scale land-use change, future water demands, water value, integrated development planning and water asset conditions. We identify a willingness of stakeholders to participate in systems-thinking approaches to address these ‘knowledge need’ themes. The ‘knowledge needs’ can be used to inform research priorities to support water-related policy in Scotland. We propose that participatory methods should be applied following the Driver Pressure State Impact Response (DPSIR) framework to address ‘knowledge need themes’ to identify and appraise adaptive management and policy options. Our methods used to identify stakeholder knowledge needs are a time, cost and environmentally effective way for collecting rich data. Methods can be replicated in other regions and water policy contexts to understand where increased knowledge is required to help build future resilience.
AB - Freshwater resources provide ecosystem services that support human prosperity and development. Future changes in climate, land-use, and population could lead to detrimental impacts on freshwater quality and quantity, threatening drinking water, irrigation and energy production. To increase resilience there is the need to better understand the possible impacts of future changes on freshwaters. We use Scotland – and its legislative agenda ‘Scotland: The Hydro Nation’ – to understand the knowledge needs of water stakeholders as a first step in building freshwater resilience. By interviewing water stakeholders across Scotland, we found an overarching ‘knowledge need’ for a greater understanding of the cumulative impacts on freshwaters associated with the interactions between multiple climatic and socio-economic drivers and their associated pressures. Stakeholders also identified five specific ‘knowledge need’ themes; large-scale land-use change, future water demands, water value, integrated development planning and water asset conditions. We identify a willingness of stakeholders to participate in systems-thinking approaches to address these ‘knowledge need’ themes. The ‘knowledge needs’ can be used to inform research priorities to support water-related policy in Scotland. We propose that participatory methods should be applied following the Driver Pressure State Impact Response (DPSIR) framework to address ‘knowledge need themes’ to identify and appraise adaptive management and policy options. Our methods used to identify stakeholder knowledge needs are a time, cost and environmentally effective way for collecting rich data. Methods can be replicated in other regions and water policy contexts to understand where increased knowledge is required to help build future resilience.
U2 - 10.1016/j.envsci.2022.06.006
DO - 10.1016/j.envsci.2022.06.006
M3 - Article
SN - 1462-9011
VL - 136
SP - 157
EP - 166
JO - Environmental Science & Policy
JF - Environmental Science & Policy
ER -