Participatory modelling

CLIWAT will have to address the challenges of using comprehensive hydrological models, difficult to understand, as a communication tool between boards and between the project and the public.

The Water Framework Directive prescribes information and consultation of stakeholders in the decision making and modelling process, but do not prescribe active involvement. A special purpose of the website and newsletter will be to translate the knowledge from the different disciplines, e.g. geophysical mapping, geological models and hydrological predictive groundwater models. This will happen in an scenario approach understandable for the boards and the public, which allow engagement and feedback from stakeholders to the project results to be gathered.

Active involvement of stakeholders is most important in the early phases of the modelling construction process and by the end of the process when the results from the predictive scenarios are produced. CLIWAT will focus resources in order to allow an interactive use of the hydrological models as part of the communication between partners, boards and stakeholders (the public).

CLIWAT will need to pay attention to how this interaction and dialogue between the partners and boards, and at the workshops. Transparency and consistency of results and communication will here be vital in order to create a trustful learning environment in the boards and credibility to model results.