Information for internationally shared surface waters

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Information for internationally shared surface
waters

• Jos G. Timmerman
• International Water Assessment Centre (IWAC) /
  Institute for Integrated Water Management and
  Waste Water Treatment (RIZA)

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The Blind Men and the Elephant

• It was six men of Indostan
• To learning much inclined,
• Who went to see the Elephant
• (Though all of them were blind),
• That each by observation
• Might satisfy his mind
• John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887)

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The elephant
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The elements

• Rationality
• Communication
• Power
• Trust
• Public participation
• Institutions
• Information production
• Impact of information
• Legal aspects
• Integrated approaches

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New type of societal problems

• Wicked problems characterized by
• large complexity
• structural uncertainty
• high stakes
• steering problems
• that cannot be handled by current policies and
  current research

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Post normal science
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The transformation

• from
• supply-driven to demand-driven
• mono-disciplinary to inter-disciplinary
• technocratic to participatory
• objective to subjective
• certainty to uncertainty
• predictive to explorative

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Integrated water assessment

• Integration over
• Economic function
• navigation, agriculture
• Ecological function
• ecological health
• Social function
• safety, drinking water supply

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Institutions

• Regime theory
• Regime international cooperation between two or
  more states in specific issue areas
• Multi-level governance theory
• Governments -gt governance
• Policy and implementation is no longer monopoly
  of central governments
• Representatives of trade, industry, local
  communities, NGOs

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Structuring framework

• Savenije and
• Van der Zaag
• (2000)

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Water management

• Water management takes place on many different
  levels local international
• Communication issues play a role on each level as
  well as between levels.
• Issues of scale comparison is difficult
• Cooperation is needed
• Power does not lead to cooperation
• Secrecy Hinders building of trust
• Building of trust requires interactive approaches
  on all levels

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Rationality

• Information is an essential basis for decision
  making
• Use of information is only rational up to a
  certain point
• Environmental problems are basically social
  problems

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Norms, beliefs, values Stewardship
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Norms, beliefs, values Inheritance
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Culture and habits drive peoples behaviour
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Communication

• Information is appreciated in a different way by
  different people
• Content of the information
• Appreciation of the information
• Preconceptions often prevent reception of
  information
• Cognitive differences
• Cognitive frames of reference

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Communication

• Communication in transboundary water management
  involves many different actors

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CommunicationFlow of information between actors

• Type of network determines if the right
  information reaches the right people

• Communication gateway the formal or informal
  connection between countries

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Behaviour of institutions

• Institutions usually have a legal framework
  setting the context
• External environment requires institutions to
  adapt. History makes institutions behave as they
  do
• Rational bureaucratic behaviour Use of
  information is orderly and rational
• Political institutional behaviour Use of
  information is procedural and disorderly

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Power connected to possession of information

• Lack of information can hinder appropriate action
• Upstream countries tend to restrict information
  exchange

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Trust

• Common information needed to build mutual trust
• Building trust in transboundary cooperation is
  hindered by
• Different legal framework
• Different historical background
• Different cultural background
• Different institutional framework

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Institutions

• Differences make institutions reluctant to open
  up access to information
• Lack of understanding
• Fear
• Ignorance
• Lack of motivation
• Need for power (especially in political
  institutional behaviour)

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Public participation

• Involvement of public
• Range from inclusionary processes (informed) to
  participatory processes (enables social learning)
• Dialogue needed builds trust and accountability
• Drivers for Public Participation
• Democratic deficit
• Self-organising citizenship
• Pragmatism

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Legal aspects

• Free access to environmental information (Aarhus,
  EC)
• What must be provided and by whom?
• How must it be provided?
• What level of detail?
• Human rights privacy
• Property rights
• Security

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Public participation

• Involving the public decision-making process
  requires full access to information
• Use of the media
• Fear of loosing control over the message
• Clear message cannot be easily changed

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Decision-making process

• Focus on socio-economic and policy implementation
  type of information
• Information has to fit to the expectations of the
  decision maker
• Socio-economic implications are indispensable for
  decision-making
• Visualisation (maps) is essential

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Transboundary commissions

• Transboundary commissions historically
  expert-based
• Producers of information are often at the same
  time users of information prod-users
• Little participation of
• Decision makers
• Stakeholders
• Little communication to outside world
• Limited size
• Operate on high, abstract level
• Consensus is easily reached
• Practical measures are effectively put into
  practice.
• (Schröder, Nilsson, 2004)

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Transboundary commissions

• Exchange of information
• Prod-users often have natural science background
• Technical bias emphasis on physico-chemical and
  biological information
• Significance of socio-economic information for
  decision-making is generally underestimated
• Experimental study showed that information on
  social and economic situation is essential in
  decision-making process

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Information production
Water management
Information utilisation
Information needs
Information strategy
Data analysis
Data collection
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Information needs

• Information cycle as a framework does not support
  the flow of information through transboundary
  water management
• Thorough thinking through of what information is
  really needed
• Different stakeholders
• Value of certain types of information
• What will the information be used for?

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The specialist
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Integrated assessment
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Index or indicator
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Impact-of-information chain

• (Denisov and Christoffersen 2000)

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Technical cooperation

• Dissemination of information requires
  presentation that provides insight into the
  situation
• Spatial distribution of e.g. pollution sources
• Transboundary cooperation is hindered by
• Differences in technical abilities
• Different approaches
• Cooperation in information requires an
  interactive approach involving the relevant actors

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(Transboundary) River Basin Information System
(RBIS)

• Many of the EU River Basin Districts will be
  transboundary
• Participatory approaches needed
• Web-based non-restricted multi-thematic GIS
  database

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Integrated water resources management

• Integrated approach Differences in spatial and
  temporal scales

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Integrated water assessment in transboundary
water management

• Set common information goals
• Integrated approach
• Participatory processes
• Full access to information to certify balanced
  dialogue
• Respond to information needs of the stakeholders
  and public
• Dialogue becomes a social learning process

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Integrated water resources management

• Indicators
• Indicators on the basis of information needs
• Indicators are to be directly used in
  decision-making process and consequently highly
  political
• Cooperation
• Disciplines differences in definitions
• Cooperate over borders

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Integrated water resources management

• Getting things done
• Technical perspective more crop per drop
• Economic perspective free market principle
• Interactive perspective negotiate values, goals,
  interests
• Integrated assessment
• Interdisciplinary approach evaluation of the
  problem is a joint effort
• Danger of focus on manageable parts
• Structure problem
• Preparation is lengthy process. People tend to
  step into the real work.

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Sharing of international water resources

• Internationally shared interests facilitate
  sharing international water resources
• Shared use leads to similar problems, similar
  measures, more effective, less cost
• International lakes management may be more
  effective
• Despite international legislation in practice
  upstream-downstream inequality

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Summary

• Information is an essential element in
  transboundary water resources management
• Used to support decision-making
• Used to evaluate the effects of water resources
  management decisions
• Information production lags behind developments
  in water management
• Information still focuses on ecological
  components of water bodies and largely ignores
  the importance of socio-economic data

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Summary

• Some aspects that hinder production of adequate
  information are
• Strong boundaries between different disciplines
  that are not easily overcome
• Consideration on information needs and the goals
  of information dissemination prior to producing
  information is insufficient
• The relevant actors are reluctant to participate
  in such processes
• Differences in institutional behaviour that
  hinders cooperation between these institutions
  and
• Insufficient tuning of organisational structures
  to the needs of the external environment

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Summary

• Even though better information may be produced,
  the use of information will still be limited
  because of
• Different valuation of information by people with
  dissimilar beliefs, values and norms, and
  different cultural habits
• Insufficient access to information for all actors
• Insufficient communication channels
• Insufficient coordination between the different
  levels and scales

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Recommendations

• Public participation is inevitable
• Sustainable management requires tuning of
  organisational structures -gt Create an enabling
  environment
• Take time to define and structure the problem
• Strong sustainability -gt functional diversity -gt
  participatory process -gt encourages better
  information
• Interactive dialogue and decision-making must be
  actively facilitated to promote social learning
• Expertise limits capacity to solve problems
• Test perception of information after transfer

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More information

• Book Environmental information in European
  Transboundary Water Management.
• J.G. Timmerman S. Langaas (Eds.)
• www.iwapublishing.com
• www.iwac-unece.org
• www.mtm-conference.nl

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Morale

• O how they cling and wrangle, some who claim
• For preacher and monk the honored name!
• For, quarrelling, each to his view they cling.
• Such folk see only one side of a thing.
• Udana 68-69
• Parable of the Blind Men and the Elephant

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