The scientist, the politician, the artist and the citizen: how water united them

Abstract

The Urban Water Atlas for Europe constitutes an original overview of Urban Water Management in Europe, explaining and illustrating water in an unprecedented way and reflecting how water, the essence of life, flows through the arteries of our cities. Leading experts in water sciences and technologies, together with climate change researchers, have joined artists and children in order to show how thirsty our cities really are and how we can cope with their growing demand for the most precious resource of our planet. The result is the first major publication of the Science and Knowledge Service of the European Commission, the JRC, which within a movement stemming from its Sci-Art Programme seeks to explore the important opportunities arising from the cross-fertilisation between science and art. The Atlas itself establishes the benchmark for over 40 cities, both European and from farther afield, in 30 different countries, in a manner which permits a vast range of municipalities to confront one of the greatest global challenges by employing local solutions in order to ensure a supply of water for all. It contains 95 scientific indicators and parameters, over 700 graphs, original illustrations and never seen before photographs and combines the work of 40 contributors from 22 organisations. Yet, the true value of this publication lies in the process of ensuring that the underlying scientific knowledge is available for societal uptake. The resolving of conflicts which stem from an exclusive self-understanding of traditional natural sciences, the difficulty to communicate the purpose of technological solutions and the challenge to engage in peer-to-peer discussion between the sciences, politics and the citizen constitute worthy lessons for both environmental experts and their social science counterparts.

The Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem Nexus in the Mediterranean: Current Issues and Future Challenges

“…Technology centers and research institutions in Europe are beginning to recognize that through its scientific and technical investigations they have a social responsibility to work in close collaboration and cooperation with society as a whole, to join forces and unite the so-called Quintuple Helix: Research and academia, the public and private sectors, and even arts and ultimately the citizen (Carayannis and Campbell, 2011;Gawlik et al, 2018).…”

Factors Affecting Water Quality and Sustainability in Dental Practices in Greece

“…Therefore, this study was carried out in dentists working in the vast area of Metropolitan Athens, the capital of Greece, during the third phase of the pandemic (March-October 2022), to investigate water quality procedures, maintenance issues of the water network and relevant equipment, educational needs, and proposals to form future eco-friendly water strategies. Water quality in the region of the study is controlled by EYDAP (Hellenic water supply and sewerage company of the capital) [55] and is considered as one of the best in Europe [56] with a performance of >99.8%, a value higher than the average scores of other Western European companies [57]. Our scope was to further analyze and evaluate factors influencing water sustainability practices of dentists in Greece.…”

On the European bison’s rewilding hooves: How to visualize it?

“…In this context, natural sciences can greatly profit from more communication than the classical journal publication or the conference presentation (Alípio et al, 2016;Anderson, 2013;Ellison et al, 2018;Gawlik et al, 2018;Perra & Brinkman, 2021;Richardson, 2018), especially considering the wide communication gap between academia and external audiences (Smol, 2018). Art and graphic design can help bridge this communication gap between science and several possible target groups (Burns et al 2003), within and outside of academia, for a wide 4 communication pursues to inform decision making then 'it must begin by listening to its audience, to identify the decisions that its members face-and, therefore, the information that they need.'…”

“…From visually reconstructed fossils of extinct species (Kantelberg, 2019) to recreations of what would otherwise look to the untrained eye like unappealing images of outer space (Torbet, 2020). This symbiotic relationship of art and science results in beneficial outcomes for both parts (Alípio et al, 2016;Ellison et al, 2018;Gawlik et al, 2018;Richardson, 2018). The generation of images from illustration and graphic design can be used as a communication bridge between natural sciences and several possible target groups (Burns et al, 2003) for a wide range of different subjects.…”

“…The broader aim is developing a 'toolkit' of visual communication tools that will be available for use in scientific research and its pertinent communication outlets. The subsequent products have the potential of becoming a key component for the development of visual tools for rewilding, which would improve the implementation of the subjects socially, politically and scientifically (Cooke et al, 2017;Gawlik et al, 2018;Weber & Schell Word, 2001).…”