Chapter 2: The Water for Agriculture Project
Project Design
Project Design
The project was designed to implement and assess an engagement model in five project sites – two in Pennsylvania, two in Nebraska, and one in Arizona. By design, these sites differed in terms of the nature of water problems ranging from water quantity issues in Arizona, water quantity and ground water quality issues in Nebraska, and primarily surface water quality in Pennsylvania. Further, the regulatory, institutional, and agro-ecological contexts across the sites also varied considerably.
The intention was to test the extent to which the engagement model could be implemented across these differences and lead to outcomes consistent with stakeholders’ social and environmental goals and with published research on the outcomes of stakeholder engagement. Changes attributed to the engagement effort were assessed at the individual level (knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, identities), collective level (norms, social networks), and institutional levels (programs, resource allocations, partnerships).
An important aspect of this strategy was to conduct research in a collaborative partnership with the participants in our five partner communities. In addition, the project team consulted with international partners (Israel, Australia) to learn from those countries’ ongoing engagement and assessment work. Based on these changes, project impacts range from the individual to the national, with the ultimate goal of creating a transferable model of stakeholder engagement that can be used in any area facing critical questions related to water for agriculture.
Tools & worksheets
Understanding Single, Double and Triple Loop Learning – Fact Sheet
This fact sheet describes the differences between single, double, and triple-loop learning.
The Role and Importance of Boundary Spanners – Fact Sheet
Describes the role played by “boundary spanners” – individuals who manage complexity and interdependencies and seek to establish new alliances, collaboratively develop innovative solutions, and encourage the transfer and translation of information – in engagement processes.
Additional resources
The Delphi technique as a forecasting tool: issues and analysis
Gene Rowe & George Wright, International Journal of Forecasting 15 (1999) 353–375.
Abstract: This paper systematically reviews empirical studies looking at the effectiveness of the Delphi technique, and provides a critique of this research. Findings suggest that Delphi groups outperform statistical groups (by 12 studies to two with two‘ties’) and standard interacting groups (by five studies to one with two ‘ties’), although there is no consistent evidence that the technique outperforms other structured group procedures. However, important differences exist between the typical laboratory version of the technique and the original concept of Delphi, which make generalisations about ‘Delphi’ per se difficult. These differences derive from a lack of control of important group, task, and technique characteristics (such as the relative level of panellist expertise and the nature of feedback used). Indeed, there are theoretical and empirical reasons to believe that a Delphi conducted according to ‘ideal’ specifications might perform better than the standard laboratory interpretations. It is concluded that a different focus of research is required to answer questions on Delphi effectiveness,focusing on an analysis of the process of judgment change within nominal groups.
A conceptual framework for social, behavioral, and environmental change through stakeholder engagement in water resource management. Society & Natural Resources 2021
Eaton, Weston M., Kathryn Brasier, Mark E. Burbach, Walt Whitmer, Elizabeth W. Engle, Morey Burnham, Barbara Quimby, Anil Kumar Chaudhary, Hannah Whitley, Jodi Delozier, Lara B. Fowler, Amber Wutich, Julia C. Bausch, Melissa Beresford, C. Clare Hinrichs, Cheryl Burkhart-Kriesel, Heather E. Preisendanz, Clinton Williams, Jack Watson, Jason Weigle. Society & Natural Resources 34(8):1111-1132.
Abstract. Incorporating stakeholder engagement into environmental management may help in the pursuit of novel approaches for addressing complex water resource problems. However, evidence about how and under what circumstances stakeholder engagement enables desirable changes remains elusive. In this paper, we develop a conceptual framework for studying social and environmental changes possible through stakeholder engagement in water resource management, from inception to outcomes. We synthesize concepts from multiple literatures to provide a framework for tracing linkages from contextual conditions, through engagement process design features, to social learning, community capacity building, and behavioral change at individual, group, and group network levels, and ultimately to environmental change. We discuss opportunities to enhance the framework including through empirical applications to delineate scalar and temporal dimensions of social, behavioral, and environmental changes resulting from stakeholder engagement, and the potential for negative outcomes thus far glossed over in research on change through engagement.