Water – Wrestling with Wicked Problems · 2017-10-06 · Water – Wrestling with Wicked Problems...

Water – Wrestling with Wicked ProblemsProf. Dr. Eddy J. Moors

Inaugural lecture

Water – Wrestling with Wicked ProblemsInaugural lecture of Prof. Dr. Eddy J. MoorsRector of IHE Delft Institute for Water Education

Delft, The Netherlands

5 October 2017

Published by:IHE Delft Institute for Water EducationPO Box 3015, 2601 DA Delft, The Netherlandswww.un-ihe.org

[email protected]

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With thanks to Ruth Webber, Peter Stroo and Vera Schouten.

ISBN 978-90-73445-33-8

Water – Wrestling with Wicked Problems 3

Contents

Setting the scene 5

Wicked problems 6

Questions to be asked 8

Trends 9

Complexity 15

What is happening at the global level? 19

Ways forward 21

How can we contribute? 25 Education 26 Research 26 Co-creation and collaboration 27

Closure 28

References 30

Biography 31

Annex: List of present PhD research topics at IHE Delft 32


Setting the scene

My inaugural lecture “Water – Wrestling with Wicked Problems”, is about water and especially issues that deal with problems of water.

How have I got where I am and why am I interested in wicked water problems?

As a child, I experienced the tender touch of water when playing, swimming, and diving with the sensation of being weightless in a completely different world. Later in life, I also got to know the force of water while helping to rescue people from a capsized dinghy off the rocky shores of Spain; swimming to the bank of the Volta Noire in Burkina Faso after the boat from which we were attempting a discharge measurement, sank; and the power of water while driving over a two lane road on the frozen surface of the Lena River in East Siberia. I felt the need for water when staying in the desert north of Agadez in Niger, as well as the joy of water, when the water came rolling through the empty bed of the wadi. Andthedelightofwaterwhentakingthefirstsipofwaterofferedbymyhostafteralonghot day. These personal experiences made me addicted to water. This addiction, and the fact that water has so many appearances, added to my numerous observations that people may have completely different perceptions, made me realise that a large number of water related problems are wicked problems.

On the following pages, I would like to explain why I consider a large number of water related problems as being wicked. I will then say something about present trends and how I think we could be looking for solutions. I would like to close this booklet by expressing my ideas about how, especially from my point of view, we as IHE Delft, can contribute to working these problems out.

6Water – Wrestling with Wicked Problems

Wicked problems

What is a wicked problem?Wicked problems are sometimes defined as problems thatare difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory and changingrequirementsthatareoftendifficulttorecognize(seeFigure 1). A wicked problem refers to a complex problem for which there is no simple method or solution, there is no single answer and every attempt can matter, because it affects the things people depend upon. Wicked problems are often socially complex and they have to deal with changing behaviours and outcomesthatareunforeseen.Foramoreelaboratedefinitionofwickedproblems,theworkby Rittel and Webber (1973) is a good starting point.

Leaking pipe and water bottle at New Delhi railway station.


WickedProblem

No clearsolution

Unforeseenoutcomes

Changingbehaviours

Inter-dependent

Sociallycomplex

Figure 1 Wicked problem.

Globally, much of the water for human consumption comes from rivers. We have more than 250 international transboundary river basins in the world. Those are shared by almost 150 different states and more than 2.5 billion people are relying on the availability of this water resource (see e.g. De Stefano et al. 2012). This already shows not only the size, but also the complexity of the problem.

Water resource management has often been described as a wicked problem, especially because there are no easy solutions. It is wicked because there are unknown dimensions to the related science, with open questions such as: How much water is available? Where is the water coming from? How is this changing in time? What is causing these changes? In addition, there are in almost all cases, multiple stakeholders that deal with the management of waterresources.Thisrendersthedecision-makingdifficultandsometimesevenimpossible.

Other examples of wicked problems in the water sector are, among others, related to groundwater resources such as: the use of the fossil groundwater under a large part of Africa, the fast decline of the groundwater table in the Middle East, but also the strategic management of the groundwater store under “de Veluwe” during prolonged periods of drought. All these issues have, besides a large natural science component, a strong social-economic component as well.


Questions to be asked

Questions that can be asked in the water sector are, for example:• Whendoesafloodbecomeanuisance?Isitifthewaterlevelreachesankle,kneeor

hip high?

Mobile dam used during floods of 2015 in Austria.

• What is water scarcity? How do we deal with water availability, water demand and water allocation?

• What are critical moments in time and space? Are they shifting with climate change?

And related to the questions above: • What are our windows of opportunity?• How much information do we need to enable informed decision-making?• What are our different perspectives and perceptions and how do we bring them together

to be able to prioritize actions? • How about equity? Is migration driven by equity imbalance? Is this imbalance and

migration related to water? • Are smallholder farmers looking towards a sustainable and acceptable level of quality

of life, or is it a dead end road and should we make more haste with alternative solutions?

Of course we would also like to know what possible solutions are, or will, become available. But before I continue discussing these problems further, I would like to give a short overview of the main trends I see happening in the world we are living in, which may haveaninfluenceonthewatersector.


Trends

There are a number of ongoing trends that may have a direct impact on the water sector, or whose impact may be indirect, for example the availability of funds, or the increased accessibility to new technologies.

Awareness raising.

Climate change is a much discussed trend. The past trend in CO2 emissions of 2.4% yearly increase during the period 2004 to 2013, has levelled off in the last couple of years (see www.globalcarbonproject.org), mainly due to China’s reduced coal use. Whether this trend continues in the next few years or not, will depend largely on the implementation of the commitments made by the different countries in the Paris agreement in 2015. Although this is a good start, it should be realised that the present commitments will most likely not be enough to reach the objective of remaining below the 2 degree global temperature increase. The 1.5 degree maximum increase pledged for by the small island states, is even less likely to be achieved.Even though there is no scientificdoubt about thephysical relationshipbetween increased greenhouse gas concentration and an increase in air temperature, there are still discussions on the cause and effects of the emissions.

At the risk of over-simplifying, one may conclude that globally, temperatures show an increasing trend overall, with some variation depending on latitude and elevation, while the trend in precipitation is more complicated, making it harder to generalise. Historic precipitation series show larger differences than temperature series, often within the boundaries of its natural variation, in a number of places with a tendency of change in timing and increasing variation, as well on the wet as the dry side.


Figure 2 shows the historic trend, as well as the projected trend, of four indicators that are subsets of temperature and precipitation for three different emission pathways, i.e. RCP 2.5, 4.5 and 8.5. Often these subsets are of more importance to help the end user to appreciate the implications for their sector.

Figure 2 Future climate (Source: IPCC, AR5).

What these changes mean for different sectors is depicted in Figure 3, taken from the IPCC fifthassessmentreport.Hereitshowswhichsectorsareaffectedandwhatourconfidenceisin the attribution to climate change. For example in the case of India, you can see that the sectorthatismainlyaffected,isfoodproduction.Youcanalsoseethattheconfidenceintheattributiontoclimatechangeisatthemediumlevel.Thefigurealsoshowsthatitisnotonlydue to climate change that this sector is affected.


Figure 3 Observed impacts attributed to climate change (Source: IPCC, AR5).

One of the other factors affecting agriculture in India, is the depletion of the groundwater aquifer. This problem is not only restricted to India: Figure 4 depicts data taken from a groundwater well in Iran, near the city of Mashat. The groundwater level drops by approximately half a metre per year. Knowing that this is a dry area, i.e. less than 200 mm of precipitation per year, you may understand that this trend is an unsustainable situation requiring a drastic change.

2003-2004 2006-2007 2009-2010 2012-2013 2015-2016104810491050

Gro

undw

ater

Lev

el (m

)

10511052105310541055105610571058105910601061

Figure 4 Observed groundwater trend at Mashad (Iran).


Possible solutions are often related to the allocation of water, requiring stakeholders to come to a common agreement on the amount of water each may use. Such agreements are legalised in treaties.

Figure 5 Signing of the Indus water treaty, September 1960.

If you consider the trend in water treaties you can see that about half of the treaties are from before 1970. This implies that most of these treaties do not take into account the big social economic changes, nor the impacts of climate change, which may cause a change in water availability. Also, in a number of these treaties, not all sectors are taken into account, for example, sometimes not all riparian states are involved (see e.g. UN Water, 2008). However,thegreatestdifficultyisintheimplementationofthesetreaties.Thisisnotonlydifficultforinternationaltransboundarytreaties,butalsoatamorelocallevel,especiallyifthe administrative boundaries do not coincide with the natural boundaries, which is often the case.

San Francisco.

The increase in the world population is another important trend. It is well known that the world population is growing and has doubled since 1970. At the moment, 7.5 billion people are living in the world. That this doubling of the population has a consequence in the amount of water that is needed, may be clear. However, the increased population not only has an impact on the total amount of water needed, but also on the allocation of


water geographically and also by sector. It is important here is that we also see a trend in urbanisation. For example, in Europe it is expected that in 2050, more than 80% of us will be living in urbanized areas. Globally this is at present a little more than 50% on average. But also on a global average, it is expected that by 2050 close to 70% of the world population will live in the cities.

75

NorthAmerica

8187

71

LatinAmerica

8086

70

Europe

73

82

71

Oceania

71 74

32

Asia

48

64

31

Africa

40

56

43

Worldwide

54

66

199020142050

54% of the world’s population now lives in cities

% of the population living in urban areas

Figure 6 Urbanization trend (Source: United Nations).

Besides this urbanisation trend, there are some other trends that are important. These are partly linked to urbanisation and partly linked to a lack of development compared with what we would have liked to achieve. One example is the availability of sanitation. Worldwide 2.3 billion people lack basic safe ways to dispose of their waste (Wald, 2017). This is most severe in sub Saharan Africa, followed by South Asia.

Health risk related to sewage treatment capacity.

A related trend is water quality and water re-use. These trends are not only important because of the waste disposal problem, but also because of the growing need for food. It is expected that by 2025 half of the world population will be living in water stressed areas. Increasingly, countries are utilizing wastewater as an important source of irrigation


and nutrients for crop production. In developing countries, at least 20 million hectares are irrigated using wastewater, which equates to 7% of all irrigated land. This practice may be a solution, but also brings risk, from exposure to untreated and partly treated waste, both to theworkerson thefieldandalso to theconsumersof theiragriculturalproducts.Thequestionishowcanweassurethatthelargepotentialbenefitsofincreasedfoodproductionusing the nutrients in the wastewater, are not overshadowed by the health related issues.

Another trend is, of course, social media. It is expected that by 2020 more than 2.0 billion people will have a smart phone (www.strategyr.com). This suggests that about one third of the total world population will have this device, and it is expected that this trend will continue. This has, and will have, a major implication for communication and also for what people will or will not accept as their surrounding living conditions and their living quality.

Is this trend in communication maybe one of the reasons that the risk of migration is going to increase? Of course migration is not a new phenomenon. However, especially with the enormous inflow of refugees in Europe, combinedwith the claims that climate changeis one of the causes, it has gained enormous attention. Often migration is connected to transboundary movements, however if we want to understand what is driving migration, it might be important to look at what is happening at a much lower level, e.g. at the province, district or community level. At this level, changes in water availability and consequently, the decrease in the livelihood of farmers, may be the push that, together with the pull of better prospects which people see through improved communication, including smart phones, may trigger migration. This brings us back to the importance of water allocation and distribution, and if we can improve livelihoods by improving equity in the distribution of available water.

A question related to this migration topic is: “Are the social economic changes triggered or aggravated by climate change?” This is still an open question and at present it is not really clear when migration starts to happen and especially how we can change the conditions, so that people do not migrate. Wicked problems!


Complexity

Wicked problems are complex problems and I want to give you some examples of the complexityoftheseproblems.Thefirstoneisaboutwaterscarcity.Waterscarcityisdefinedasthelackofsufficientavailablewaterresourcestomeetwaterneedswithinaregion.Atpresent it affects every continent and around 2.8 billion people around the world experience at least one month of water scarcity every year.

Youcandefinewaterscarcityasresultingfromtwomainmechanisms:oneisphysicalwaterscarcity and the other is economic water scarcity. An important aspect of water scarcity is the water users’ perspectives and perceptions. Is the glass half empty or is it half full? Is the aquifer half empty or is the aquifer half full?

Figure 7 Perceptions. (Source unknown)

Besides the availability of water, discussions about how much water is needed, is another difficulttopic.Stronglyrelatedtowaterscarcityaredroughts.Butwhatisadrought?ThereareanumberofdefinitionsandFigure 8 depicts some of them.

Physicalwater scarcity

Economicwater scarcity

Precipitation deficit Meteorological drought

Soil water deficit Agro hydrological

drought

Groundwater deficit Hydrological drought

Evaporation

Water demand Soc. Econ. drought

Surface water deficit Hydrological drought

Antecedent water storage

Figure 8 What is a drought?


If we talk about droughts, we often mean meteorological droughts. Meteorological droughts arerelated toprecipitationdeficits.This is inmostcases thestartingpointofadrought.Depending on the water storage and evaporation amount, this drought may cause a soil waterandorsurfacewaterdeficit.Thesoilwaterdeficitbaseddrought,wecallanagro-hydrological drought and it may affect crop production and also nature. Surface water deficitbaseddroughtsarecalledhydrologicaldroughts.Togetherwiththesoilwaterdeficitanddependingontheantecedentwaterstorage,thesurfacewaterdeficitmaycauseanotherformofahydrologicaldroughtrelatedtoagroundwaterdeficit.Thesehydrologicaldroughtsmay cause problems in, for example, electricity supply, infrastructural assets, irrigation water supply, drinking water supply, or transportation. The most important drought in my opinion, is the social economic drought. This social economic drought is strongly related to water demand. An example of a social-economic drought is the drought in California, where the huge increase in demand of almond milk, caused a big increase in the use of irrigation water. Of course these droughts are connected to one another and one may cause the other to be more severe.

Foremost in all drought related problems, is the perspective of the end user. This is the case for nature, but especially for mankind. Water scarcity very much depends on where you would like to use the water, i.e. what sector, what business you are in.

An example of droughts, the consequences they may have and the wickedness of the problem comes from South Asia. In South Asia, the Monsoon onset is an important trigger for farmers to start sowing their crops. If this onset changes, then that also means that the farmers should change the sowing date of their crops. In Asia you often have a double cropping system or even a triple cropping system. Changes in timing of a crop may have an impact on the yield, but it may also have an implication on what amount of water is needed when. Changes in the rain pattern may cause a change in demand of the other water resources.

Figure 9 shows the time at which different crops have a different demand on irrigation water. For example, for the Indus basin in the summer months, April and May sugar cane is irrigated and the main water sources are ground and surface water. In the months November to February, wheat and rice are grown and in the Indus and Ganges basin and mostly groundwater is used for irrigation, while in the Brahmaputra basin the main source in this period is surface water.


Net

irrig

atio

n w

ater

dem

and

(BC

M/d

ay)

Figure 9 Crop specific seasonal water demand (Source: Biemans et al., 2016).

If climate change is going to further increase the temperature, the timing and amount of meltwater may change, which will have an impact on the water availability and crops grown in the Rabi season (November to March). While if the Monsoon rain patterns are going to change, it will have a major impact on the Kharif season (June to October).

Increasingirrigationefficiencycan, toanextent, reducetheneedfor irrigationwater. InFigure 10 the fate of irrigation water is depicted for different crops. Transpiration is strongly linked to photosynthesis and, as such, resembles the amount of water that is needed for a crop to grow. The remainder of the water is often considered as a loss, i.e. soil evaporation, lossesbyevaporationand leakageof the conveyer systemand the returnflow from theagriculturalfields.

Drip irrigation paradox

Figure 10 Irrigation efficiencies for different techniques (Source: Jägermeyr et al., 2015).


The important point is the difference between surface water irrigation and drip irrigation. At present, there is a trend to encourage the agricultural sector to use drip irrigation. As has been seen from Figure 10,thismayhaveabigeffectonincreasingwateruseefficiency.However,what isoftenforgotten, is the returnflow.Thereturnflowofsurfacewater ishuge.Ifthischangeinreturnflowisnottakenintoaccount,itmayhaveseriousimplicationsfor other water users of the same water basin. This phenomenon is sometimes also called the drip irrigation paradox.

The agricultural sector is one of the major water users - up to 90% of all water in some countries. As so many areas are already experiencing water scarcity, adequate adaptation strategies are urgently needed. Examples of potential adaptation strategies are: improved rainwater harvesting, increasing storage capacity (if possible in ground water systems, to reduce evaporation losses), but also looking at shifting sowing dates, changing irrigation types, going from surface water to drip irrigation. The latter point should be considered as part of a basin-wide approach to prevent possible negative impacts on other water users, because of the drip irrigation paradox. Changing crop types or crop varieties is interesting, if putintheperspectiveofimprovingeconomicbenefitsandreducingwateruse.Conversionfrom rain fed to irrigation or vice versa, could also take place in certain areas, to optimise the use of the available water resources.

The sustainable use of water resources, was, is and will be an even more important issue. Other examples of the complexity of the problems we are facing in the water sector, are related to re-cycling. Return flow, the drip irrigation paradox and what this means fordifferent users, has already been mentioned. Another one relates to the water cycle. If we change the irrigation timing or area at a large scale, what will this mean, for example, for the water cycle (e.g. Harding and Snyder, 2012)? Will this have implications on precipitation amounts further downwind, or will it have implications for the small scale micro-meteorological conditions, important for crop growth and crop health?

Another important re-cycling issue is related to what is sometimes called “new water”. “New” water refers to treated water, being either saline water or waste water. Should we consider treated water a new source of water, or is it an integral part of the existing water cycle and, as such, be considered at basin scale? As mentioned before, an interesting related topic to the re-use of water, is health.


What is happening at the global level?

Are there any answers which will help mitigate or adapt to these global trends, which are causing complex wicked problems? Yes, fortunately these problems are being discussed at the international negotiation tables and actions are being taken. One example is the ParisAgreementof2015anditsfollow-ups,amongotherstheratificationoftheIntendedNationally Determined Contributions (INDC) in 2016. Another example are the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to be achieved by 2030, which are potentially very important drivers for actions. At present there sometimes seem to be more discussions about how best to monitor the present state of the SDG indicators, than actions being taken to achieve the goals. This makes 2030 look frighteningly close.

v

Figure 11 Sustainable Development Goals. The red dashed box indicates the main goal IHE Delft is contributing to, while the grey dashed boxes indicate the other goals important for IHE Delft. (Source: United Nations)

If we look at the SDGs and see how IHE Delft is contributing towards achieving these (see Figure 11), then, as may be expected, most projects are related to SDG 6 “Clean water and sanitation”. Not all goals require technical solutions: for example SDG 6.5 is related to transboundary issues, which in my opinion is one of the goals that needs more attention. What Figure 11 also shows, is that IHE Delft, as a water institute, supports more than half of all the SDGs. This shows the importance of water and the strong need to have a holistic approach, integrating all the different sectors.


In order to achieve goals like those from the Paris Agreement, as well as the SDGs, investment funds are essential. An example of such a fund, is the Green Climate Fund (GCF). Figure 12 depicts the investment priorities of the GCF. This shows that there is a strong link to the SDGs.

Climate-compatible citiesInvestment priorities

Sustainable low-emission climate-resilient agricultureScaling up finance for forests and climate changeEnhancing resilience in small island development States (SIDS)Transforming energy generation and access

Figure 12 Investment priorities Green Climate Fund. (Source: Green Climate Fund)

Almost all of the GCF priorities are also related to development goals. However, looking at the projects that have been approved so far by the GCF, one may wonder if we should not rethink our investment strategy. One of the reasons for the limited number of projects being approved, is attribution. Can the vulnerability the proposals addressed, be attributed to climate change, or are they related to development? This is not only an ethical discussion, butalsoverymuchapoliticalone.Inmyopinion,societywouldbenefitifthereleaseofthese funds could be improved, to enable a step forward to be made. Ultimately, we are interested in improving the quality of life for everybody, everywhere and, as such, we are as much interested in mitigation of and adaptation to climate change, as in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.


Urgency to walk.

Ways forward

If we want to make a step forward, we should realise that water, including urban water, needs a holistic approach. This implies that other considerations, such as land use, should also be taken into account, along with technical solutions and social economic considerations. This also requires collaboration between, for example, the Ministry of Water Resources which is the main body responsible for water distribution and the Ministry of Agriculture, responsible for agricultural water demand. This collaboration is not only needed at the top decision-makinglevel,butallthewaydowntothefieldlevel,wherethemeasuresarebeingimplemented. The latter requires engagement between stakeholders at different levels, from end users, such as farmers, to the ministers of the different departments.

To enable engagement of different stakeholders and open alternative financing options,public private partnerships are an option. However, in the water sector, they are often used to create a sustainable partnership. One of the barriers for such a partnership, is the factthatthevalueofwaterisoftendownstreaminthevaluechain,makingitdifficulttogenerateaddedvalueatthefirststageofthewaterproductionchain.Forthatreason,itisdifficulttohaveagoodbusinessmodel,whichshowstheinvestorsasolidreturnontheirinvestments.Inthelastcoupleofyears,moreemphasishasbeenplacedoncashflowbyinvestors. The latter could open up possibilities to create a business model, where projects


(i.e. sustainable) with a long term, slow return on investments, can be combined with an acceptable cashflowgenerated in the earlier years of the project, therebymaking it aninteresting case for investors.

Another possible way forward, is to introduce a different approach to applied research. At present,appliedresearchoractionresearchiseitherdoneinthefirstphaseofaprojectidea,or at the end of a project, after implementation, to evaluate the project. What I would like to suggest is that applied research should play another role. For me that role could be that applied research is integrated in the implementation phase of projects. As a consequence, research will not only become a very small part of the total investment of a project and thereforeeasiertofinance,butmoreimportantly,welearnfromthemistakesandsuccessesduring the implementation phase, creating options to adapt the project while still in its implementation phase. This change from a sequential to a more parallel approach of appliedresearch,willnotonlyhaveapositiveimpactonthecostandbenefitsofresearch,but also on the total project. An added advantage for institutes such as IHE Delft, which educate mid-career professionals is that such a parallel approach opens up the opportunity to engage students in the implementation phase of projects, which is particularly important for students intending to return to their jobs and positions.

The following are somewhat more detailed suggestions for a way forward. To reduce water scarcity,weshouldtrytoincreasetheproductivity,orwateruseefficiency,orevenbetter,thevalue of water. From the Netherlands, there is at present, strong encouragement to increase water productivity by at least 25%. In Iran there is even a drive to reduce agricultural water use by 40%. This urgently needed, but at the same time, a very ambitious target. The implementation of this measure is still a particularly big challenge.

What you see happening, in the case of Iran for example, is that there is an agreement at high level between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Water Resources. However, to implement this 40% reduction in water use on the ground, is not easy. Of course the Ministry of Water Resources, which is allocating the surface water, could enforce the reduction of 40%. But what is the consequence? If the farmers have no alternative to compensate or increase their income, while having less water, they will look for other solutions.Thefirstthingthefarmerwilldo,istolookforanalternativewatersource.Oftenthis will be groundwater. If, within the permissions for groundwater extraction, this has not been foreseen, there will be a shift from the use of surface water to the use of groundwater, with an undesired lowering of the groundwater table as a consequence. A better approach could be a collaboration between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Water Resources, together with the farmers, to look at alternatives, to assure an increase in their income, while reducing the amount of water being used.


Stakeholder engagement.

Another example is related to water quality. This is an important issue because next to a decrease of the availability of water and an increase in water demand, the quality of water is also declining.

Thisisnotanewsituation,howeveritismainlyaggravatedbytheintensificationofwateruse, requiring adequate regulation and water treatment to assure required quality. One of the countries that is attempting to achieve this, is India, as illustrated by the “Clean Ganga Project”. Related to these efforts are several activities not directly linked to a technical solution. An important one is creating a business model e.g. showing monetization of energy generation and residue use. Another activity is adapting regulation that allows the use of treated water. A business model can come forward when you can generate energy or when you can use the residue, for example in agriculture.

Creating distributed decentralised water treatment systems and using the trend of renewable energy, often being produced in a decentralised manner, open up new possibilities. The trend in renewable energy may create a shift from farmers being food producers, to energy providers. Such a development may also enable processing industries to develop near the place of the primary agricultural production. Processing agricultural products near the place where the crop is grown, may decrease food loss, by increasing the lifespan of products. In such a case, fewer investments in infrastructure will be required, to assure transportation of electricity, sewage and primary agricultural products to and from central facilities.


One example is already happening in India, where local grids are set up and farmers can sell the surplus energy from solar panels, which are installed to pump water for irrigation. Another possibility may be the introduction of greenhouses generating food and energy, or farmers becoming owners of the treatment plant or food processing facility, maybe in the form of a cooperative. These are possibilities that may increase the income of farmers, and in so doing, change their business operation and also their water use. It may also be one of the factors in reducing migration.


How can we contribute?

The mission of IHE Delft is to contribute to the education and training of professionals, to expand the knowledge base through research and to build the capacity of sector organizations, knowledge centres and other institutions active in the fields ofwater, environment andinfrastructure in developing countries and countries in transition.

To enable IHE Delft to achieve these results, an even stronger demand driven and problem based approach is needed. By making capacity development the overarching objective, and using education, research and institutional strengthening activities as pillars, it will enable us to build a solid demand and problem driven approach (See Figure 13). This approach should focus strongly on achieving results, i.e. tangible outcomes.

Capacity Development

Research EducationInstitutional

Strengthening

Figure 13 The three IHE Delft pillars: education, research, institutional strengthening under the umbrella of capacity development.

At present, an update of the existing strategy is being developed at IHE Delft, which will give answers to how we would like to accommodate the discussed trends and create an enabling environment, to approach a number of the aforementioned wicked water problems. To be effective, it is important to select the problems to which we can best contribute. To assure large scale impact, we look for complementarities with the Sustainable Development Goals, the UNESCO IHP programme, the objectives of the Ministry of Foreign affairs of the Netherlands and the science agenda of the Netherlands, in co-creation and collaboration with our partners. The following sections are a mixture of ongoing changes at IHE Delft and ideas that are being discussed in view of the strategy update.


Education

Education in countries in transition is improving steadily, but there still is a gap in education that combines technical knowledge with social economic knowledge, as well as the skills needed to apply this knowledge, such as leadership skills. IHE Delft could play an important roleinfillingthisgap.

There is alsoagrowingneed for education thatfitswith theneedsof the employersofour mid-career students, as well as with the professional life of the students. This requires flexibilityinthecomposition,durationandlocationofoureducationprogramme.Partly,our (specialised) short courses are an acceptable answer, but there is also a need for MSc and PhD programmes with these characteristics.

Present developments at IHE Delft in the field of education are, among others, thedevelopment of a 12 months’ Master, and the launch of a 5 year programme that allows professionals to obtain a Master’s degree, while they continue working. Both of these steps are being made to improve the possibilities for professionals to increase their knowledge and to make the next step in their career.

The above developments also require a continuous process of improving our didactical skills, integrating new possibilities and insights, taking distant learning to the next level and also adjusting our internal process to facilitate these changes.

Research

On the research side, there is an increasing need to integrate different disciplines in order to tackle present day wicked water problems. IHE Delft has a rich variety in research, best represented by the PhD research that is currently taking place, with our partners at universities such as TU Delft, Wageningen University and Amsterdam University (see Annex: List of present PhD research topics at IHE Delft).

However, wicked problems require bringing together not only technical solutions, but also looking at how those solutions can be implemented. To do this, knowledge of both economic issues like investment, but also of social issues, like acceptability and institutional settings, are as important as technical knowledge. This strongly relates to the institutional strengthening pillar of the Institute, where we look at enabling cross-sectoral integration, which plays an important role in the implementation of solutions. An example of this is bringing together agricultural water demand, forestry needs to comply to REDD+, urban planningcombiningurbangrowth,floodprotectionwithwaterreuseandfoodproduction,etc.Inaddition,insightsintofinancialinvestment,governance,juridicalandpoliticalsetting


are important to be taken into account. Research to improve our understanding of the main drivers of these processes is needed, as well as transferring this knowledge, including skills on how to apply this knowledge, to our students. Building this into the present MSc and PhD programmes will contribute to our problem based approach.

Co-creation and collaboration

An important enabling factor for the work of IHE Delft, is co-creation and collaboration with our partners and funding agencies. IHE Delft has the ambition to enable people and organizations to solve water and development challenges worldwide, contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. To further enhance this work, the Institute needs a solid basic funding, but also the enlargement of the collaboration circle and a search for new partners.

New partners may come from private businesses, such as insurance companies, production companies with a strong interest in water sustainability, or through a stronger engagement withgovernmentalinstitutionsfromdifferentcountries,aswellasinternationalfinancinginstitutions and NGOs, to educate and train their employees.


The new generation!

Closure

Scientists are sometimes seen as people making problems more complicated than necessary. However, mostly, scientist are trying to discover the principal processes behind phenomena they observe. However, because of outliers and exceptions, scientists sometimes have to reconsider the generalisations that were made and have to introduce more complexity to be able to explain these outliers and exceptions. The latter was already noted by Einstein, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler”. Outliers and exceptions arealsothereasonwhyitwouldbebeneficialforsocietyifsciencewerebetterrewarded,for carrying out research that repeats earlier work. By stimulating this repetition of research,itenhancestherobustnessofthefindingsanddecreasestheassociateduncertainty.Unfortunately, at present, there is no reward for repetitive research that may potentially only supportthefindingsofearlierresearch.Infactthereisadisincentive,causedbythehighrewardsrelatedtothepublicationoforiginalfindings,especiallyinhighimpactjournalssuch as Nature and Science.

ThisbringsusbacktothewickedproblemsasdefinedbyRittelandWebber(1973):thereis no single right answer and every attempt can matter, because it affects the things people depend upon. Wicked problems in particular, since we have so many in the water sector, wouldbenefit fromrepetitive research, thatengageswithdifferent stakeholders, therebycapturing their full range of perceptions, alongside more fundamental research.


TheUniqueSellingPointsofIHEDelftarefirstlythecross-cuttingexpertisethroughtheentire spectrum of water disciplines, brought together in long term partnerships. The second USP is the ability to connect people across borders and work together on our common passion: “wicked water problems”, leading to major impact on the ground.

My ambition is to reinforce IHE Delft’s position as a leading institute for future water leaders. To achieve this, we should not only provide the best education for water professionals, expanding knowledge and stimulating innovation, but also equip our students with leadership skills to prepare them for their future.

I am looking forward to working together with all our partners in and outside the Netherlands, as well as my colleagues from the academic and support departments, not to forget students and alumni, to realise this ambition.


References

Biemans, H., Siderius, C., Mishra, A., and Ahmad, B. 2016. Crop-specific seasonalestimates of irrigation-water demand in South Asia, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 1971-1982, doi:10.5194/hess-20-1971-2016.

De Stefano, L., J. Duncan, S. Dinar, K. Stahl, K.M. Strzepek, and A.T. Wolf. 2012. Climate change and the institutional resilience of international river basins. Journal of Peace Research 49: 193–209.

Harding K.J., P.K. Snyder. 2012. Modeling the atmospheric response to in the Great Plains. Part II: the precipitation of irrigated water and changes in precipitation recycling. J Hydrometeor 13:1687–1703. doi:10.1175/JHM-D-11-099.1.

Rittel, H., and M. M. Webber. 1973. Dilemmas in a general theory of planning. Policy Sciences 4:155–69.

IPCC, 2013, 2014. Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) WG1 and WGII.

Jägermeyr, J., D. Gerten, J. Heinke, S. Schaphoff, M. Kummu, W. Lucht, 2015. Water savings potentials of irrigation systems: dynamic global simulation. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions. 12. 3593-3644. 10.5194/hessd-12-3593-2015.

Wald, C. 2017. Nature 549, 146–148. doi:10.1038/549146a.

UNWater,2008.TransboundaryWaters:SharingBenefits,SharingResponsibilities.Pp20.


Biography

Prof. Dr. Eddy J. Moors was appointed Rector at IHE Delft in 1 July 2017. He also is professor “Water and Climate” at VU University, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Before coming to IHE Delft he worked for Wageningen University & Research and the World Meteorological Organization. Keywords in his work are: climate change, water, adaptation, primary production, green-house gas emissions and stakeholder interaction.

He is especially interested in integrating different disciplines, to tackle research and policy questions that ask for an inter- and trans-disciplinary approach. His research ranges from more fundamental oriented research, towards applied research, with clients ranging from policy makers, private businesses to citizens and farmers.

He has a background in hydrology and climate change research on mitigation and on adaptation topics. The present focus of his adaptation research is on the occurrence of trends and extremes, as well as on measures to mitigate these extremes, using a systems approach. Measures being developed and applied are based on the principles of climate smart agriculture, nature based solutions and green economic growth. Especially for the latter topic, engagement with the private sector through public-private partnerships has been established.

He is and has been, coordinator of numerous national and international projects including in Europe, Africa, India, Bangladesh, East-Siberia to USA and Brazil.


Annex: List of present PhD research topics at IHE Delft (August 2017)

Mr. M.D. Maheng Indonesia Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Strategy using Green Infrastructure

Mr. A. Purwanto Indonesia Development of Decision Support System (DSS) for Food Security: An Integrated Approach of Spatial, Environmental and Food Agricultural Land Protection Planning

Mr. I.M. Hartanto Indonesia Integrating multiple sources of information for improving hydrological modelling: the ensemble prediction approach

Ms. Y. Ekowati Indonesia Protection of public health from microbial and chemical hazards in swimming pool environments

Ms. F. Zakaria Indonesia Rethinking Faecal Sludge Management in Emergency Setting

Mr. B. Batubara Indonesia Socio-hydrology of flooding in Jakarta

Mr. W.W. Winaktoe Indonesia Urban polder development. Case study on the Province of Daerah Khusus Ibukota (DKI) Jakarta

Mr. M. Gharesifard Iran ICT-Enabled Citizen Observatories of the Environment: evaluation of the participation dynamics and outcomes

Mr. S. Mehvar Iran Quantifying climate change driven environmental losses on coasts

Ms. S.A.A. Theol Iraq Effects of Cohesive Sedimentation in the Irrigation Systems - Case Study: AL- Kadhimiya irrigation system, Tigris River, Iraq

Mr. G. Mancini Italy Anaerobic Digestion and Co-digestion of Lignocellulosic Material

Mr. A. Cattapan Italy

Ms. Antonella Piaggio Italy Re-designing (an)aerobic DAF systems and comparison with AnMBR, for application in Indian urban sewage.

Ms. A.F.R. Almomani Jordan ICT-enabled Citizen Observatories of the environment: analysis of the incentives and barriers of the Stakeholders’ participation.

Mr. A. Imbo Kenya

Ms. J.N. Riungu Kenya Biogas facilities as a sanitation for the informal urban slum settlements: Enhanced sludge valorisation

Mr. P.M. Mawioo Kenya Novel Concepts and Technologies for Excreta and Wastewater Management in Emergency Conditions

Ms. C.A. Etiegni Kenya Towards participatory fisheries governance: A Case of Lake Victoria Fisheries (Kenya)

Mr. J.O. Onyango Kenya Toxicological Fate, Monitoring and Potential Climate Change Effects of Pesticide Residue in the Lake Naivasha Catchment, Kenya

Mr. A.B. Md. Ali Malaysia Flood Inundation modelling and Hazard Mapping Under Uncertainty in the Sungai Johor Basin, Malaysia

Mr. O.O. Marquez Calvo

Mexico Advancing robust multi-objective optimization applied to complex model-based water-related problems


Mr. V. Diaz Mercado Mexico Spatio-temporal analysis of hydrological drought: integration of data-driven and conceptual modelling techniques

Mr. J. Godinez Madrigal

Mexico Water allocation dilemma between two economic heartlands: the case study of Los Altos-Leon-Guadalajara inter-basin water transfer

Mr. N. Andreev Moldova Terra preta nova production for resource oriented management of human excreta

Ms. A.M.L. Saraiva Okello

Mozambique Bridging the gaps between Hydrology, Land use and Water Management using Tracers and Water resources Modelling in the Incomati Basin

Mr. A.M. Biza Mozambique The Politics of Wastewater in Maputo City

Mr. N. Dhakal Nepal Controlling Biofouling in Algal Blooms Impacted Seawater Reverse Osmosis

Mr. M. van Ormondt Netherlands Advances in coastal inundation modelling

Mr. R. Schurer Netherlands Application of Membrane Technology to enhance Biological Stability in Surface Water Treatment

Mr. B.M. Coerver Netherlands Atmospheric Recycling of Consumed Water within River Basins

Ms. K.A. Anema Netherlands Building Community Resilience to Floods in Urban Contexts

Mr. T.M. Hessels Netherlands Determination of Groundwater Recharge and Abstraction Rates from Earth Observations Supported by Hydrological Models

Mr. W. Veerbeek Netherlands Estimating the impacts of urban growth on future flood risk A comparative study

Ms. A. Duker Netherlands Evaluation of the robustness of alluvial water use systems in Ethiopia and Zimbabwe – A social-ecological system approach to analysing internal and external disturbances

Mr. H. Smit Netherlands Institutional analysis of water resources management in the Blue Nile river basin, Ethiopia and Sudan

Mr. G. Dam Netherlands Long-term process-based modelling of the morphology of estuaries

Mr. J. Reyns Netherlands Modelling morphodynamics of reef-associated coastlines

Mr. E. Hes Netherlands Quantifying wetland ecosystem functions

Mr. J.K. Olthuis Netherlands Upgrading wet slums

Ms. P.C. Obani Nigeria Environmental Human Rights and Development, case of sanitation

Ms. Z.N. Musa Nigeria Living with sea level rise on a subsiding delta: using satellite based data and information to develop mitigation and adaptation Measures for the Lower Niger Delta

Mr. H.I. Mustapha Nigeria Treatment of petroleum-contaminated wastewater using constructed wetlands

Mr. S. Hayat Pakistan Afghanistan, Pakistan and River Kabul: Pathway for Collaboration or New Basis for Conflict

Mr. M.S.M. Sousi Palestine Bio-stability of drinking water


Mr. M.B.M. Abunada Palestine Optimum Design and Operation Framework for RO Desalination Systems

Mr. A.M.J. Abushaban Palestine Safe induction time control of scaling formation in reverse osmosis membrane

Ms. J. Salcedo Borda Peru Effects of reservoirs on nutrient stoichiometry, phytoplankton production and community structure in Danube Basin

Ms. L.C. Tan Philippines Micro-aerobic bioreactor to selenium and tellurium contaminated wastewater

Ms. M. Salingay Philippines Toxicological Assessment of Pesticide Contamination in Urban Flood Water: Case Study in Cagayan de Oro, Philippines and Can Tho, Vietnam

Mr. A. Uwimana Rwanda Rehabilitation of Sediment and Nutrient Retention Functions in Wetland s of Migina Catchment, Rwanda

Ms. E. Kocbek Slovenia A novel integrated approach for sludge dehydration and dewatering using microwave technology

Mr. S.Y. Kim South Korea Municipal Wastewater Treatment using Algae and Bacteria at MBR process(based on MLE process

Ms. L. Basco Carrera Spain Participatory decision-making for sustainable Integrated Water Resources Management. Strengthening stakeholder ownership using a Collaborative Modelling approach

Ms. C. Lines Diaz Spain Value of information in support of operational drought management

Ms. M. Tutusaus Luque

Spain WATSAN in Small Towns Mozambique

Mr. J.B. Rajapaksha Mudiyanselage

Sri Lanka A Holistic, Modelling Approach To Simulate Catchment-Estuary-Coastal System Behaviour At Macro Time Scales

Ms. J.G.S. Thotapitiya Arachchillage

Sri Lanka Process based modelling of future variations in river flows and fluvial sediment fluxes to coasts in data poor regions due to climate change and human impacts

Ms. T.G. Madapura Eregowda

Sri Lanka

Ms. R.F.M.O. Digna Sudan On Optimising the operation of the multi-reservoir system in the Eastern Nile basin considering water and sediment fluxes

Ms. E.M. Fadul Bashir

Sudan Optimizing benefit streams in spate irrigated agriculture in Sudan

Mr. K.E.A. Hassaballah

Sudan The Hydrological Impacts of Land Use/Cover and Climate Changes on Dinder River Morphology and Eco-hydrology of the Dinder National Park (DNP)/Sudan

Mr. S. Mutagwaba Tanzania

Mr. K. Poldul Thailand Cost-effectiveness of Multi-Policy Implication of Groundwater management: A case study of the Lower Chao Phraya Basin in Thailand


Ms. S. Prabnakorn Thailand Integrated Water Management at the Tapi River Basin, Thailand

Mr. P. Nilubon Thailand Urban Flood Risk Analysis and Management using Relational Urbanism Model: A Case Study in Ayutthaya Historic City (under UNESCO), Thailand

Ms. R. Khanongnuch Thailand

Ms. C. Murungi Uganda Unbundling the Sanitation Chain: Tackling the Sanitation Crises in Slums through an In-Debt Understanding of Governance and Institutional Arrangements and their Contributions to Sustainability of Services

Ms. S. Namaalwa Uganda Water quality and hydrology regulation under the influence of agriculture in Namatala wetland, Uganda

Mr. P. Sayers United Kingdom Strategic flood risk analysis and management: A system based approach

Ms. S.M. Bentacur Caballero

Uruguay Carry out at a UPM pulp mill wastewater treatment plant (WWTP)

Ms. M.A. Szabo Corbacho

Uruguay Developing water and wastewater technologies to be applied in the food processing industries in Uruguay

Ms. A.I. Alves Beloqui Uruguay Multifunctional design of measures for flooding

Ms. H. Do Minh Vietnam Application of GIS in flooding Management, Assessment and Creation of Future Scenarios to Adapt to Climate Change and Rising Sea Level ( a case study in the North of Vietnam)

Mr. T.D. Nguyen Vietnam Development and Validation of a 3D Wave-current Interaction Formulation in Delft3D Model, Application in the Mekong Estuaries and Outflow Areas

Mr. Q.H. Ngo Vietnam Development of an efficient modelling approach to determine Socio-economically optimal flood risk reduction strategies

Ms. T.T.N. Huynh Vietnam Integrated Flood-Related Water Quality and Health Risk Assessment in Urban Area. Case study: Ninh Kieu district, Can Tho city, Vietnam

Mr. Q.T. Vo Vietnam Interactions between hydrodynamics and morphodynamics in Alluvial Estuaries

Ms. X.L. Nguyen Vietnam Research on the Applicability of Granular Sludge Technology for Treating Saline Wastewater from General Municipal Collection System

Mr. M.M. Aklan Yemen Revitalizing Indigenous Water Harvesting System to mitigate drought and flash floods- Yemen

Mr. T.M.Y. Al-Washali Yemen Water Loss Assessment for Developing Countries; the Case of Yemeni Water Supply Systems

Mr. M.M. Nabuyanda Zambia The Fate of Cobalt, Copper and Lead in Two Wetlands in Zambia

IHE Delft Institute for Water Education

PO Box 30152601 DA DelftThe Netherlands

+31 15 215 [email protected]

www.un-ihe.org

Water – Wrestling with Wicked Problems · 2017-10-06 · Water – Wrestling with Wicked Problems...

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