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Home > Improving Communication - Updated: 02-09-2009 9:21 am
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A serious lack of communication frequently occurs between the scientific community, managers, planners, policy makers, and end-users or stakeholders. Too often, stakeholders in the water sector are isolated by legal and professional precedents from the best available scientific knowledge. A major objective of HELP is to ensure that water management and design practice reflects current understanding of hydrological processes.
This objective will not be achieved without good communication between hydrology and those charged with managing the water environment. For HELP, achieving this good communication is an objective in itself. The hydrological community is therefore responsible for presenting information in such a way that it is understandable to non-specialists. HELP will encourage the development of methods to: - provide a reduced set of reliable and comparable information on the state of catchments;
- interpret science in a way useful to managers;
- include water resources, environment, social and economic criteria;
- capture the “essence” of the catchment in a few statistics;
- provide comparison between countries and regions;
- indicate trends over time and space;
- measure success (and failure) of catchment management, programmes and policies.
- ensure comparability between projects.
Communication needs to take place at many different levels, both formally and informally. Examples of formal communication would be through participating in drawing up international conventions, or national policy and catchment management plans. Informal communication can be through the media, that is, television, radio, newspapers, the Internet, and public meetings. In all cases, timing and relevance are vital.It is frequently said that the best water manager is the water user. Public education is probably the most effective, long-term way to effect change at the lowest unit of water management, whether it is in the home, in the field, or at work. However, there is no one “channel” through which this can be done. Long-term media and education campaigns are needed, in co-operation with governments, utilities, and water management agencies. Research is required on the most effective way to disseminate hydrological knowledge in different cultures and situations. HELP can enhance the communication process by using its own network. There should be constant communication among HELP projects to exchange information, findings and results, techniques, and approaches to water problems – in science, management and policy. Individual HELP projects will need to establish their own formal project community committees, to set up two-way communication with the end-users and the general public, and to ensure the involvement of the media.
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