Community hydrological monitoring network through the coproduction of knowledge

CAMILA PRUDENTE; FEDERICO ARIEL ROBLEDO; VALERIA HERNANDEZ; LEANDRO DIAZ

Ascona

Workshop; 21st SWISS CLIMATE SUMMER SCHOOL; 2023

In South America, the provision of climate services at the regional and local levels is hampered by various challenges such as limited understanding of climate processes (caused in part by the paucity of observations), inadequate dissemination of scientific knowledge, and lack of action on the part of decision makers and human society. To address these challenges, the CLIMAX project (http://www.climax-sa.org/) aims to develop innovative monitoring and prediction tools for regional climate in South America and co-produce climate-related knowledge to enhance the social response capacity to climate events that affect agricultural sectors.We put into practice a co-production experience with small farmers, political decision-makers and an interdisciplinary team of researchers (climatologists and anthropologists) in the Gran Chaco wetland area of Argentina, with the aim of co-producing climate information tools to underpin local family agriculture. This experience is based on the theoretical framework of implicated science approach (Hernández et al. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2021.102443), which consists of two premises: (1) establish communication between actors to recognize different points of view regarding a topic and distinguish coincidences and discrepancies between them; (2) apply symmetry of the various knowledge on a subject, to validate all points of view about the world even if this implies that the beliefs are opposed.The co-production in the territory is organized in “co-production cycles” to produce disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and inter-sectoral knowledge. One of them aims to create and develop a local hydrological monitoring network (RCBH) for interested social actors. This experience arose in part as a local demand for systematic knowledge of rivers and is based on previous ethnographic fieldwork and other cycles developed in the Bermejo territory, such as the co-production of a community rainfall monitoring network.Until this moment, eight hydrometric rules were built and installed along the rivers associated with significant impact on daily activities. Rules are strategically located in easily accessible places designated by the local community for daily monitoring. Various workshops and meetings are held among the actors to devise the possible monitoring strategies, systematize measurements, and disseminate information to the population of Bermejo. The information is published in a monthly climate bulletin and reported on local radio. Through social networks, the social actors share the observations and the impacts associated with different climate events (e.g., floods or droughts). It has been registered that the overflow of the local rivers can cause flooded roads, deteriorating houses, spoiled crops, and leaving livestock without food. On the other hand, droughts can lead to water scarcity for the population and livestock consumption, and crop irrigation. This information provides a tool for the community to make better decisions based on the impacts generated by different climate events, and thus, the community considers the co-production of RCBH a relevant tool.