Science and Society
The aim of BeWater is to promote dialogue and collaboration between science and society for sustainable water management and adaptation to the impacts of global change in the Mediterranean.
Water management in the face of climate change is a cross-cutting issue, which relates to a myriad of stakeholders, interests and areas of expertise. It also brings in a wider public, increasingly demanding to be not only informed but also taken on board in the development of climate change strategies. The active involvement of regional and local stakeholders in the creation of water management plans is an essential path towards more informed adaptation strategies, based on robust and enriched decision-making and the creation of awareness, trust and acceptance among river basin communities.
The BeWater project, focuses on fostering the dialogue between science and society, deliberately goes beyond the mere inclusion of stakeholders. Instead, the project has set up clear mechanisms of sustained stakeholder engagement, integrated in a well-defined science-based methodology The integration of science-driven and stakeholder-driven approaches clearly contributes to the societal relevance of the scientific activities. Indeed, stakeholders feed the scientific process with knowledge, arguments, suggestions, ideas, and challenge the outcome of the scientific approach. Conversely, stakeholders' ideas and assumptions are being tested and sometimes challenged through the scientific approach. In this way, BeWater partners work together with stakeholders to develop river basin adaptation plans.
Steps in the process to define water management options in Work Package 3,
as input to the river basin adaptation plans developed in Work Package 4.