Stakeholders' perception of the relevance of water and sediment connectivity in water and land management

Abstract

Using concepts of connectivity in challenges regarding land and water management (flooding, erosion, nutrient leaching, landslides) can only be fully harnessed if knowledge is communicated well between scientists and stakeholders. Proper communication requires prior understanding of end‐users' perception of connectivity as a useful framework. Therefore, we analysed (a) perceptions of ‘connectivity’ for stakeholders involved in water and land management across Europe, (b) potential for stakeholders to apply connectivity‐related measures in their management decisions, (c) stakeholders' biggest challenges in water and land management, and (d) stakeholders' expectations for future connectivity research agendas. We studied 85 questionnaires from 19 countries using a grounded theory approach. One third of stakeholders understood connectivity in its scientific context, whereas 39% perceived connectivity indirectly through their personal experiences (e.g., water and sediment fluxes and erosion). Half of stakeholders' perceived links and challenges were related to availability of data and methods, communication, and institutions or policy, whereas others believed they were related to water quality and quantity, soil erosion and quality, and climate change. Half of the stakeholders considered connectivity management important, and one third showed high interest in managing connectivity. Adopting connectivity into management is hindered by institutional‐ and policy‐based management limitations, insufficient data and methods, and ineffective knowledge transfer. Explicitly considering heterogeneity of stakeholder perceptions is required for projects regarding management of connectivity at European, national, and local scales.

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“…Increasing the involvement of soil erosion and land degradation scientists in projects related to decision making or governance and sharing common perspectives with stakeholders active in land and water management (e.g., Nunes, Doerr, et al, 2018, Smetanová, Paton, et al, 2018), with or without SDGs‐related initiatives, opens a window of opportunity for policy makers to include scientific knowledge and tools to build holistic sustainable management (Stringer et al, 2018) and to better prepare for the challenges of our changing world (Benton et al, 2018; Kareiva & Fuller, 2016; Lal, 2016).…”

Perspectives and ambitions of interdisciplinary connectivity researchers

“…Connecteur WG3 Think-Tank Team, 2018;Heckmann et al, 2018) and without (e.g. Turnbull et al, 2018) research of connectivity or with actors outside academia (Smetanová et al, 2018).…”

“…This question can only be answered by studying the perceived relevance of connectivity issues by stakeholders across the environmental sector. Perceived relevance of connectivity seems to be rooted in the experience and everyday challenges of water and land managers and contributes to heterogeneities in the potential to manage connectivity and apply methods adapted for management purposes (Smetanová et al, 2018, questioned 85 stakeholders in 19 EU countries). The studies of perceived relevance of connectivity may radically alter (in an ontological sense) the nature of connectivity as a research problem (Freeman et al, 2007;Nadeau and Rains, 2007;Leibowitz et al, 2008;Golden et al, 2017;Ali et al, 2018).…”

Sediment Connectivity: A Framework for Analyzing Coastal Sediment Transport Pathways

“…Furthermore, online visualization tools (e.g., Cytoscape Franz et al., 2016) make it possible to develop interactive ways of visualizing connectivity, bringing tangible form to the often abstract concepts of sediment transport. This also makes connectivity an attractive platform for communicating with stakeholders and the public (Smetanová et al., 2018).…”