1st Edition

Information Needs for Water Management

By Jos G. Timmerman Copyright 2015
    236 Pages 2 Color & 28 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    This book provides the necessary elements to determine exactly what information should be collected to make the collected information relevant for policy makers. It highlights the dissatisfaction of information users about the information they get and the reasons for this dissatisfaction. It also discusses general issues around the role and use of information in policy making. The text then describes the how to develop a full understanding of the policy makers’ information needs and will describe how policy makers can be included in the process. Finally, the book describes how the results from this process are input for the information production process.

    Introduction ‐ setting the scene
    Introduction to water monitoring
    The water information gap
    Policy problems and approaches to solve them
    Exercises

    The link between monitoring and water management
    What is monitoring?
    The information cycle
    Improving the information product
    Application of the information cycle
    Exercises

    How to develop the process
    Frameworks to manage the process
    The rugbyball methodology
    Exercises

    Analyzing the water management situation
    The need for a water management analysis
    Human uses and ecological functioning
    Problems
    Function/Issue table
    Legal obligations for monitoring
    Criteria/targets for functions/uses and issues
    Further measures, policies and action plans
    Overview of management targets
    Some examples of deriving information needs
    Exercises

    Transforming water policy into information needs
    The integrating decision‐model
    Structured breakdown of functions and uses
    Structured breakdown of cause‐effect relationships
    Structured breakdown of measures
    Working scheme
    Exercises

    The next steps
    Documenting the results
    Finalizing the process
    How to transform information needs into a monitoring strategy
    Exercises

    Biography

    Jos G. Timmerman