Transcript Silvia Podda. Social receptiveness, water saving and reutilization

“Facing climate change and desertification.
Water management in Sardinia”
Silvia Podda
DRES, borsa di Ricerca “Promozione della ricerca scientifica e dell’innovazione tecnologica in Sardegna”
Water emergency
= low rainfall, insufficient water
Meloni, 2006
oversized demand for water compared to the available
resource.
Usage and management not sustainable, no saving plans
Meloni, 2006
UN Human Development Report 2007:
human pressure over resources, SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR
 prevention, usage rules, durable and sustainable
solutions (Allan T., 1996, Massarutto A., 2008)
RATIONAL MANAGEMENT and innovative approach:
to heal the current imbalance between demand,
availability and use of the resource competition
between different sectors
(Ferragina E., 2003, Massarutto A., 2008)
Agricoltural usage
higher consumption = higher demand (70%) and lower
availability (UNPD, Human Development Report, 2006)
 Use of non-conventional resources & saving practices
high quality resources for civilian usage
Hypothesis of a fixed system:
depuration, collection and distribution in consortium’s
waste water networks
Water emergency (drought and scarce resources)
Focus of analysis and projects: technical and
economical aspects
• Underestimation of the social aspect
• Gap between expert knowledges and local
knowledges
Role of social research:
 Social dimension:
behaviours and perception
(Douglas M. 1996, Douglas M. e Wildawski A., 1982)
 Contextualization in the projects:
local and cultural specificity
Research project
Method premises:
1. Saving and sustainability policies are more effectively
analyzed if contextualised
2. Water is a common good. Its management requires local
knowledge, projectual inclusion, governance
Research project
Tools:
Concepts of perception of the risk, social representation
(contextualised perception, Meloni B., 2006) and receptiveness
Targets:
1. Investigate user’s behaviours , perception and social
acceptability (Jeffrey P., 2001) in a contextualised study
2. Create knowledge of saving methods
How creating knowledge (1)
• comparison between different water and saving cultures
• study of social acceptability towards saving practices
• understanding and evaluation of social control and of
saving practices
• spreading of generated knowledge in scientific and
professional area
How creating knowledge(2)
• water saving systems and sustainable agriculture
(multifunctional systems recovery, bio-diversity, localized
food systems)
• adoption of less water-demanding cultivations,
abandoning some usages and relocating some others
• identification of sharable solutions, the role of local
actors and their knowledge
• recovery of traditional cultures as a complement to
scientific knowledge and technical applications
• effect of incentives on rates and user’s behaviours
Research – Waste water recycling
These method premises have benn used in
CatchWater (best practice) and Reraria projects
Research: explores in depth receptiveness aspects tied to water
saving and recycling, to study to what extent they are accepted
in specific agricultural contexts. Populations interested by
specific projects are no more passive receptors, but tend to be
up-to-date and take aware decisions (reflexivity)
 Shared and partecipated intervetion method
Approach:
Contextualization: water culture, behaviours, local
knowledges and experts’ system, water saving
Perception of the emergency risk, social representations
linked with agricultural and urban saving
Inclusion and interest of various stakeholders during
information and participation phases (Mela A., Belloni M.L.,
Davico L., 2000).
Water as a common good:
Styles of governance and orientation to the action
Inclusion in projects related to environmental risk
as opposed to forms of technological intervention
which ignore the local knowledge
The acquisition of knowledge and identifying spread
knowledge (often dispersed, fragmented) as a basis for
effective planning
Spread knowledge, inclusion , governance,
contextualization
 Sustainable project, with focus-survey-focus
method, research aimed to action
1 Focus group
A group of stakeholders discusses and confronts itself,
under a moderator’s invite, on a topic selected by the
researcher.
Equal relation between ‘expert knowledges’ and
stakeholders, bidirectional flow of information.
2 Survey
Usage of elements emerged from the focus group,
structured interview (answers codified for the most part,
and some qualitative clarification)
3 Focus – results returning
Meetings between stakeholders and all the interested
people, even indirectly
Interactive process of discussion and collective
reflection
Required comparison between what has been achieved
and what a community needs and expects.
cognitive operation,
matched by an operational project
Research:
tool to promote user information
and participation
“Facing climate change and desertification.
Water management in Sardinia"
Silvia Podda
DRES, borsa di Ricerca “Promozione della ricerca scientifica e dell’innovazione tecnologica in Sardegna”