“Facing climate change and desertification. Water management in Sardinia”

1. “Facing climate change and desertification. Water management in Sardinia” Social receptiveness, water saving and reutilization.Social representations, expert knowledge and inclusion in the project Silvia Podda DRES, borsa di Ricerca “Promozione della ricerca scientifica e dell’innovazione tecnologica in Sardegna”

2. Water emergency = low rainfall, insufficient water Meloni, 2006

3. oversized demand for water compared to the available resource. • Usage and management not sustainable, no saving plans Meloni, 2006

4. UN Human Development Report 2007: human pressure over resources, SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR  prevention, usage rules, durable and sustainable solutions (Allan T., 1996, Massarutto A., 2008) RATIONAL MANAGEMENT and innovative approach: to heal the current imbalance between demand, availability and use of the resource competition between different sectors (Ferragina E., 2003, Massarutto A., 2008)

5. Agricolturalusage higher consumption = higher demand (70%) and lower availability (UNPD, Human Development Report, 2006) Use of non-conventional resources & saving practices high quality resources for civilian usage Hypothesis of a fixed system: depuration, collection and distribution in consortium’s waste water networks

6. Water emergency(drought and scarceresources) Focus of analysis and projects: technical and economical aspects • Underestimation of the social aspect • Gap between expert knowledges and local knowledges

7. Roleof social research: • Social dimension: behaviours and perception (Douglas M. 1996, Douglas M. e Wildawski A., 1982) • Contextualization in the projects: local and cultural specificity

8. Research project Method premises: Saving and sustainability policies are more effectively analyzed if contextualised Water is a common good. Its management requires local knowledge, projectual inclusion, governance

9. Research project Tools: Concepts of perception of the risk, social representation (contextualised perception, Meloni B., 2006) and receptiveness Targets: Investigate user’s behaviours , perception and social acceptability (Jeffrey P., 2001) in a contextualised study Create knowledge of saving methods

10. How creating knowledge (1) comparison between different water and saving cultures study of social acceptability towards saving practices understanding and evaluation of social control and of saving practices spreading of generated knowledge in scientific and professional area

11. How creating knowledge(2) water saving systems and sustainable agriculture (multifunctional systems recovery, bio-diversity, localized food systems) adoption of less water-demanding cultivations, abandoning some usages and relocating some others identification of sharable solutions, the role of local actors and their knowledge recovery of traditional cultures as a complement to scientific knowledge and technical applications effect of incentives on rates and user’s behaviours

12. Research – Waste water recycling These method premises have benn used in CatchWater (best practice) and Reraria projects Research: explores in depth receptiveness aspects tied to water saving and recycling, to study to what extent they are accepted in specific agricultural contexts. Populations interested by specific projects are no more passive receptors, but tend to be up-to-date and take aware decisions (reflexivity)  Shared and partecipated intervetion method

13. Approach:  • Contextualization: water culture, behaviours, local knowledges and experts’ system, water saving • Perception of the emergency risk, social representations linked with agricultural and urban saving • Inclusion and interest of various stakeholders during information and participation phases(Mela A., Belloni M.L., Davico L., 2000).

14. Water as a common good: Styles of governance and orientation to the action Inclusion in projects related to environmental risk as opposed to forms of technological intervention which ignore the local knowledge The acquisition of knowledge and identifying spread knowledge (often dispersed, fragmented) as a basis for effective planning

15. Spread knowledge, inclusion , governance, contextualization Sustainable project, with focus-survey-focus method, research aimed to action 1 Focus group A group of stakeholders discusses and confronts itself, under a moderator’s invite, on a topic selected by the researcher. Equal relation between ‘expert knowledges’ and stakeholders, bidirectional flow of information.

16. 2 Survey Usage of elements emerged from the focus group, structured interview (answers codified for the most part, and some qualitative clarification) 3 Focus – results returning Meetings between stakeholders and all the interested people, even indirectly

17. Interactive process of discussion and collective reflection Required comparison between what has been achieved and what a community needs and expects. cognitive operation, matched by an operational project Research: tool to promote user information and participation

18. “Facing climate change and desertification. Water management in Sardinia" Thank you for the attention Silvia Podda DRES, borsa di Ricerca “Promozione della ricerca scientifica e dell’innovazione tecnologica in Sardegna”