Interdisciplinary Knowledge Frameworks for Transboundary River Basins

MARCELO SAGUIER; ANDREA GERLAK

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF WATER RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT

ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2015

0790-0627

This paper reports on the major themes presented during the IAI-funded workshop on hydropower development and climate change in the Uruguay River Basin in Buenos Aires, Argentina in July 2014. Findings include disciplinary research priorities around visualizing and assessing change in the natural sciences, institutional and socio-political considerations, and equity and fairness concerns. Emerging interdisciplinary themes highlight sites of potential cross fertilization in relation to: the framing and communication of hydroenergy and climate change linkages; deliberative spaces and citizenship; science contributions to policy decision-making related to industrial production, the exploration of the political economy relations of energy futures, reflection on past experiences of attempts at interdisciplinary knowledge processes and practical actions to foster interdisciplinary knowledge frameworks. Finally, we outline our next steps which include the development of good practices for interdisciplinary, user-oriented global change research as well as the development of an interdisciplinary socio-scientific network between natural and social scientists, policy-makers and social actors involved in water politics as governance mechanisms and practices.