News
News
The Conservation Value of Wetlands Workshops
The Inland Rivers Network is running a series of workshops over the next few months on understanding the values of wetlands in the Murray Darling Basin. The aim of these workshops will be to encourage and empower communities with a love of rivers and wetlands to become involved in the protection of these high conservation value freshwater systems in their local areas.
Integrated Assessment Tools: Using Indigenous values to determine cultural flows
Melanie Durrette from Synexe Consulting has recently published a working paper entitled "An integrative model for cultural flows: Using values in fisheries to determine water allocations" as part of their pathbreaking Knowledge Notes Series.
Engagement Tools: Using Social Media
In contrast with broadcast or mass media, social media is a category of communication practices and technologies characterised by decentralised and open publishing that creates spaces for dialogue, knowledge exchange, participation and interaction. It is primarily made possible through internet and mobile-based tools which allow for enhanced sharing of information and content created by individuals and organisations using inexpensive (and often free), accessible and scalable publishing technologies and practices.
Design Principles in Planning for Climate Resilience
A new paper by Lyuba Zarsky from the Global Development And Environment Institute at Tufts University looks at the principles and design models for what is referred to as "climate-resilient development paths". The paper argues that the climate change imperative—the urgent need to both mitigate and adapt to climate change—comes at an opportune moment to consider how industrial transformation and economic development could approach climate-resilience.
Understanding the effects of groundwater extraction on Indigenous water access
As part of the Queensland Water Planning Tools pilot study, this report was prepared by Dr Ian White and the project team in partnership with the Traditional Custodian groups of the country covered in the Central Condamine Alluvium region. The four Indigenous groups ? the Barunggam, the Jarowair, the Giabal, and the Kambuwal ? recognised as Traditional Custodians of this country worked with the research team to articulate the current past impacts of groundwater extraction on Indigenous access and use of water resources.
World Water Day: Promoting Water Footprint Labeling
This article by Jaymi Heinbuch examines the possibility of water footprint labeling as a means to inform consumers about the impacts of products on global water supplies. Heinbuch suggests that a water footprint label may soon be as prominent on product packaging as an Energy Star label, and with an equal amount of clout among consumers, but warns of the difficulties in getting internationally recognised measurement standards.
Adaptive Management Tools: "Limiting Factor" Evaluation
A recent article by Raymond Gullison and Jared Hardner defines an alternative approach to the design of evaluations, which is intended to address the complexities of long time horizons for changes from natural resource management, and identifying the key measurable changes with which to assess the success of a natural resource decision or program. The author's call the approach "Limiting Factor Analysis" based on identifying those factors most likely to impede success of a program, and evaluating the success of a policy based on its impact on these limiting factors. This approach could be directly used in water planning - where often the success of a plan or planning process may not be known for some time, and the changes to water availability directly related to the plan are often difficult to untangle.
Creating Cooperation through Boundary Spanning in Water Management
Planners have long understood the need to be across multiple disciplines, areas of expertise, knowledge and practices. In a new book published by IWA publishing entitled "Governance and Complexity in Water Management: Creating Cooperation through Boundary Spanning Strategies", the editors bring together a range of researchers and practitioners to outline the concept of boundary spanning, and how it can be better harnessed to improve processes of adaptive management.
Career Development: Working as a water planner
The H2Oz Careers in Water campaign website provides a description of the roles and duties of a water planner, as well as regular updates on job opportunities in the water planning field. The overview of a career in water planning emphasises planner's key duty in ensuring crucial envrionmental and social objectives are met in water management, and that demand and supply solutions are achievable, cost effective, and meet with government and community expectations.
Guide to Monitoring and Evaluating Public Participation
The Guide to Monitoring and Evaluating Public Participation provides an overview and set of tools for assisting water planners is assessing their strategies and techniques for community engagement. The Guide uses a framework which is based on a comprehensive review of national and international approaches, detailed in Volume 1 of the Collaborative Water Planning project reports
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