Work package 1: Situating global delta-knowledge networks in relation to other global knowledge networks (co-led by UK and Japan)
Global initiatives aiming at the production of knowledge and/or decision-making guidelines have gained in importance over the last decades. WP1 aims to understand the rise and functioning of current day global delta-knowledge networks and their impacts on policies for deltas located in developing countries. Once mapped (activity 1.1), global delta-knowledge networks will be studied in relation to the four case-study deltas and in relation to four specific objects (climate models, deltas plans, hydrological models, agronomic research). WP1 will be based on key informant interviews with experts and planners, content analysis of existing documentation, as well as social network analysis. WP1 will, among others, yield information on (1) the way global experts conceptualise uncertainty, (2) the types of tools they use/devise for managing deltas and (3) the types of interventions they promote for delta governance. Such information will be used as input in the participatory modelling developed in WP3.
1.1 Mapping and analysing global knowledge networks (UK/Japan)
Network analyses will be performed to study how global delta-knowledge networks are created and maintained, what shape they take in relation to the four case-study deltas, and how they relate to other global networks. This involves identification, mapping and characterisation of global delta-knowledge networks, analysing their roles and functioning in relation to global development aid, climate-change adaption (including IPCC), and water management and irrigation communities.
1.2 Travel case: UK climate models (UK)
Based on new interviews and analysis of recent documents, we will strongly enrich the dataset underpinning Mahony and Hulme’s (2012) study of the travel of the PRECIS regional climate modelling system of the UK Met Office Hadley Centre (MOHC) to developing countries. We will update the analysis of the PRECIS network and analyse the shape it takes in relation to the four case-study deltas.
1.3 Travel case: Dutch delta planning (NL)
This activity studies the travels and dynamics of the Dutch delta-planning ideas to developing- country deltas. Attention will be paid to the contents of the relevant Dutch delta knowledge, to the consequences of translating Dutch knowledge to developing-country contexts, and to the network that facilitates knowledge travel.
1.4 Travel case hydrological model networks (Japan)
We will study the way hydrological models ? which are now central to delta management ? are embedded in the global knowledge networks that have developed around them and kept updating them. In Denmark, the MIKE series, widely used by water management authorities in developing countries, will be studied. In Japan, the objects studied are climate-change prediction models developed by Japanese hydrologists as part of UN projects for simulating climate change impacts on global water circulation.
1.5 Travel case agronomic knowledges (France/NL)
Delta environments are strongly shaped by agricultural practices, and notably rice cultivation. We will study global repositories and travels of ‘rice knowledge’. Specific attention will be paid to the international agricultural research community (and notably the International Rice Research Institute): how it has evolved through time, tracing the types of research cultivars and agronomic packages it has over time.