Research on Stakeholder Engagement in Watershed Issues

Stakeholder Engagement

Research within USDA CSREES and at Land Grant Universities is exploring how to best facilitate stakeholder (i.e., individuals, community, watershed groups) involvement in watershed issues.

Research pertaining to "Stakeholder Engagement" can be broken into the following categories (linked further down on this page):
Community Watershed Concerns
Community Involvement
Programming to Engage Stakeholders

Community Watershed Concerns
Researchers within USDA CSREES and at Land Grant Universities are identifying what water resource and watershed issues communities across the nation are concerned about.

Accomplishments:
The Pacific Northwest Regional Water Quality Program conducted a survey to establish information about water literacy, views, and needs within the Region. Survey results appear in a Journal of Extension article (Mahler et al. 2004 ). Even though differences were seen among states on some issues, it is noteworthy that there is much commonality in water attitudes among states within the Region. The survey results will be used to guide water quality programming efforts over the next 4- to 5-year planning period. Based on survey results, residents are receptive to additional educational programming about drinking water and human health, groundwater, and watershed management issues. This survey is in the process of being adapted and issued in other CSREES Regions.

Researchers at Iowa State University conducted one-on-one confidential assessment interviews in the Squaw Creek watershed to understand how residents perceive water quality conditions and other natural resource issues in the region. One finding of this study was that residents relate most closely to the landscape very near where they live and work and therefore have difficulty – or not be interested – in thinking on a larger, regional scale.

Community Involvement
There is much social science research going on within CSREES and the Land Grant Universities on community involvement in watershed management. Researchers are also studying different approaches to watershed management.

Accomplishments:
The CSREES Heartland Regional Water Quality Coordination Initiative on Community Involvement in Watershed Management has completed an extensive literature review of case studies, journal articles, and primary research on the subject. From these resources, Extension staff, local watershed organizers, and partnering agencies can learn the latest research on getting stakeholders engaged in watershed issues.

Researchers at the University of Missouri are developing an integrated watershed management (IWM) framework that integrates scientific knowledge/data and user-supplied information regarding the watershed-scale social, economic and environmental processes affecting water quality and to implement that framework using a spatial decision support system (SDSS). The IWM/SDSS framework formed the centerpiece of a multi-tier educational program to empower communities to establish locally conceived, lead and directed watershed alliances.

Rutgers University researchers are identifying political and institutional challenges to collaboration within local watershed projects . This work should provide practical information about the characteristics of rural and urban areas that may facilitate or hinder watershed planning.

A project at the University of Vermont highlighted the importance of understanding how conceptual, administrative, and spatial boundaries are defined and interpreted by participants in planning processes for forest and watershed management.

Programming to Engage Stakeholders
Extension educators are greatly interested in learning what types of programming engages stakeholders in watershed management the best. Research within CSREES and at the Land Grant Universities is pursuing this investigation.

Accomplishments:
Research at Michigan State University is determining more effective extension communication and agricultural best management practices (BMPs) to improve water quality in agricultural watersheds. Habron (2003) found that traditional methods of communication, such as newsletters and printed fact sheets were preferred more than innovative methods of communication, such as e-mail, computer software, and web pages by all farmer types. Audiences more responsive to the innovative forms of communication were younger, more educated landowners with higher gross incomes.

A project at the University of New Hampshire is testing methods and evaluating approaches for identifying, characterizing, and communicating with stakeholder groups of specific programs or policies.

The intent of this page is not to catalogue all activities but rather to indicate the types of research in the CSREES Watershed Management theme across the U.S.