Quote from a National Academy of Science news release that caught my attention:

“The combination of limited water supplies, rapidly increasing populations, warmer regional temperatures, and the specter of recurrent drought point to a future in which the potential for conflict among existing and prospective new water users will prove endemic, the report concludes. This will inevitably lead to increasingly costly, controversial, and unavoidable trade-offs among water managers, policymakers, and their constituents.”

“It was therefore a welcome development when the seven Colorado River basin states presented preliminary proposals for managing water shortages in a letter last February to the U.S. secretary of the interior, the committee said. Such interstate cooperation will prove increasingly valuable, and likely essential, in coping with future droughts and water demands. Likewise, a commitment to two-way communication between scientists and water managers will be critical. In addition, the federal government should ensure that the U.S. Geological Survey has the resources to maintain and expand the Colorado River gaging system, which collects streamflow measurements essential for sound water-management decisions.”

Water problems certainly do highlight how some types of complex problems are affected by decisions from huge numbers of stakeholders. We all need water.

When the NAS stresses the importance of “two way communication between scientists and water managers” it sounds like they’re considering an investment in telephone technology. Maybe it’s just a point of language. Maybe not. Either way I think we’d all agree that two way communication isn’t the type of communication needed to address a water problem affecting all residents of 7 states (and arguably many more).

How do you organize the participation of broad groups of stakeholders? It’s awful easy to use blogs and wikis.

If you’re learning about wikis I recommend listening to this conversation between Dan Bricklin and Asheesh Birla.

[tags]National Academy of Science, many to many communication, wikis[/tags]