Author(s): Andreja Jonoski
Linked Author(s):
Keywords: Web application; Stakeholders; Participation; Flood management; Hydroinformatics
Abstract: This article presents experiences from two recent European research projects oriented at development and testing of web-based applications for information dissemination and involvement of stakeholders in water-related problems. Over the last couple of decades the theoretical aspects of such developments have been researched quite extensively within the field of hydroinformatics, but presentation of results from actual implementations of such applications with diverse stakeholders has been so far quite limited. The presented case studies and associated applications in this article are for flood-related problems. Although the article touches upon several aspects of these applications, such as the required modeling support, information structuring, customized visualization and latest technologies for their implementation, the main focus is on the experiences gained from the testing of the applications by the diverse stakeholders involved, including relevant water-management authorities. In all presented case studies the involved stakeholders have provided structured evaluations of the web applications, using evaluation forms. The results from these stakeholder evaluations together with their additional comments and reactions serve as a basis for the discussion on future challenges in developing similar applications. This discussion also tries to combine and match the stakeholders’ experiences with the expectations, insights and lessons learned by the involved research and development teams, as they were gained during the implementations of the projects. Notwithstanding the challenges associated with rapidly evolving technologies for developing such applications, the broader future challenges are identified to be in the following areas: motivation for stakeholder participation, problem scale (physical and corresponding social context), management of stakeholder expectations, recognition and adoptions of these approaches by water management authorities (overcoming the ‘project-based’ stakeholder participation) and the need for better integration of social sciences knowledge.
Year: 2013