Systems in the eyes of the beholder

Over a month ago, we organised a stakeholder workshop as part of the GLOBAQUA project with the goal of identifying ecosystem services (goods and services obtained from nature – for more information see Millennium Ecosystem Assessment) and understanding how human activities within the catchment influence those important services. This workshop was the first stakeholder interaction planned for the project and I am pleased to present to you a summary of what happened on that day.

globaqua

So what is GLOBAQUA? Well, it is a project funded by the Seventh EU Framework Programme under the full title Managing the effects of multiple stressors on aquatic ecosystems under water scarcity. The project’s main aim is to study the effects of water scarcity in a multiple stressor framework to achieve a better understanding of how current management practices and policies could be improved by identifying their main drawbacks and alternatives (see Navarro-Ortega et al. 2015). In other words, it focuses on exploring how current water management practices could be improved by accounting for the cumulative effects of human activities on aquatic ecosystems.

Imperial being the partner responsible for the policy work package of this project (WP12 see below), aims to contribute to improving the knowledge on utilising a systems approach to water management by integrating ecosystem service assessments to support the implementation of the Water Framework Directive. We, along with our partners from ALTERRA, have arranged this workshop for the Broadland Rivers catchment in East Anglia and the members of the Broadland Catchment Partnership (main consortium involved in managing the catchment).

 

globaquaWPs
Module and work-package structure of GLOBAQUA (from: Navarro-Ortega et al. 2015).

The day started with presentations from various organisations explaining the potential for integrating ecosystem services in the next catchment plan. During this time, Nick introduced what GLOBAQUA is about to the members of the Broadland Catchment Partnership and briefly explained the policy implications of what we are doing. Our partners from ALTERRA then led the workshop and initiated the group discussions regarding ecosystem service identification and preliminary valuation. In case you are wondering why this blog post is entitled, “Systems in the eyes of the beholder“,  here we emphasise the importance of getting stakeholders to collectively discuss and understand what we do as a society (human activities)  influences what we value (ecosystem services) to begin treating their catchment as a system (see our previous post on Systems versus Linear thinking for more information). The workshop was filled with discussions and useful insights that made it such worthwhile experience (speaking from the perspective of someone attending such workshops for the first time).

This workshop marks the first step towards bridging the gap between science and policy; acknowledging the need for improving policy evidence through the integration of stakeholder knowledge and experience. I mean, how else can you improve the management of a catchment without getting the people who live and depend on it involved, right?

We hope you enjoyed this blog post. Stay tuned for more updates from the Environmental Quality Research Group.

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