TY - JOUR
T1 - Stakeholder-driven, enquiry-driven, or stakeholder-relevant, enquiry-driven science?
AU - Shuttleworth, W. James
N1 - Funding Information:
by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). Because NSF is a federal agency whose primary goal is to “enable the future” by stimulating novel, state-of-the-art science and because the SAHRA Center is a federally-funded entity supported by NSF, SAHRA clearly cannot operate in response mode to meet local stakeholder-selected demands in competition
Funding Information:
Acknowledgements This work was supported by SAHRA (Sustainability of semi-Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas) under the STC Program of the National Science Foundation, Agreement No. EAR-9876800 and NSF award DEB – 0415977. The author gratefully acknowledges the inputs from his co-participants in the HELP and PUB programs and from many colleagues in the SAHRA Center and the assistance of Marisa Rodriguez in final preparation of the manuscript.
PY - 2007/1
Y1 - 2007/1
N2 - There is currently debate within the international hydrological community on whether hydrological science should give priority to providing measurements, knowledge, and understanding pre-determined as being needed by stakeholders, or priority to more basic enquiry-driven science that will stimulate the continued health and growth of hydrology as an important Earth science discipline. Two recent major international initiatives in hydrology reflect these two perspectives. One, the Hydrology for the Environment, Life, and Policy (HELP) program, is primarily fostered by UNESCO-IHP and is focused on stimulating the stakeholder-driven hydrological science required in specific catchments that have become members of a global network. The second, the decade on Prediction in Ungauged Basins (PUB), which is appropriately managed by IAHS, is primarily driven by scientific enquiry and is focused on creating new scientific methods and understanding, albeit with practical application ultimately in mind. This paper summarizes the nature, origins, growth, and progress of these two international programs but also describes the subtly different approach that has been adopted by the U.S. National Science Foundation's (NSF's) Center for Sustainability of semi-Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas (SAHRA). NSF is a federal agency whose primary goal is to "enable the future" by stimulating novel science. Because SAHRA is a federally-funded entity supported by an agency with this goal, the Center clearly cannot operate in stakeholder-driven, response mode in competition with the already effective private U.S. consultancy industry. Nonetheless, SAHRA's mission is to create knowledge and build understanding that will enhance the prospects of sustainable water management in semi-arid regions, especially the southwestern U.S. To resolve this apparent conflict, SAHRA looks ahead to future stakeholder needs and builds its research agenda around selected critical stakeholder-relevant questions that require substantial and sustained investment in basic, multidisciplinary, enquiry-driven science. This paper describes SAHRA's approach and reports on associated research and outreach activities.
AB - There is currently debate within the international hydrological community on whether hydrological science should give priority to providing measurements, knowledge, and understanding pre-determined as being needed by stakeholders, or priority to more basic enquiry-driven science that will stimulate the continued health and growth of hydrology as an important Earth science discipline. Two recent major international initiatives in hydrology reflect these two perspectives. One, the Hydrology for the Environment, Life, and Policy (HELP) program, is primarily fostered by UNESCO-IHP and is focused on stimulating the stakeholder-driven hydrological science required in specific catchments that have become members of a global network. The second, the decade on Prediction in Ungauged Basins (PUB), which is appropriately managed by IAHS, is primarily driven by scientific enquiry and is focused on creating new scientific methods and understanding, albeit with practical application ultimately in mind. This paper summarizes the nature, origins, growth, and progress of these two international programs but also describes the subtly different approach that has been adopted by the U.S. National Science Foundation's (NSF's) Center for Sustainability of semi-Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas (SAHRA). NSF is a federal agency whose primary goal is to "enable the future" by stimulating novel science. Because SAHRA is a federally-funded entity supported by an agency with this goal, the Center clearly cannot operate in stakeholder-driven, response mode in competition with the already effective private U.S. consultancy industry. Nonetheless, SAHRA's mission is to create knowledge and build understanding that will enhance the prospects of sustainable water management in semi-arid regions, especially the southwestern U.S. To resolve this apparent conflict, SAHRA looks ahead to future stakeholder needs and builds its research agenda around selected critical stakeholder-relevant questions that require substantial and sustained investment in basic, multidisciplinary, enquiry-driven science. This paper describes SAHRA's approach and reports on associated research and outreach activities.
KW - HELP
KW - Hydrological science
KW - PUBS
KW - SAHRA
KW - Semi-arid hydrology
KW - Stakeholder-driven hydrological science
KW - Stakeholder-relevant hydrological science
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33845960707&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=33845960707&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11269-006-9041-3
DO - 10.1007/s11269-006-9041-3
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:33845960707
SN - 0920-4741
VL - 21
SP - 63
EP - 77
JO - Water Resources Management
JF - Water Resources Management
IS - 1
ER -