Roger Seaton

Tools to think with? Towards understanding the use of computer-based support tools in policy relevant research

As environmental science has broadened to address policy concerns, there has been an effort to transfer the perceived benefits of formal modelling to these new areas through the creation of computer-based support tools. However, a number of poorly addressed issues pose barriers to the uptake of such tools. These issues are discussed to argue that the current support tool research agenda is too focussed on hard, technical concerns and that greater emphasis needs to be given to soft, contextual aspects of design and use. To counter these deficiencies we propose a framework for research based upon the concepts of innovation and receptivity. Three different sources of innovation relevant to support tools and end-user receptivity are identified. We contend that new technologies and new techniques for manipulating them have to be translated into the pre-existing knowledge and working practices of user communities before they can be effectively employed. To illustrate the proposed framework, the paper explores the impact of one innovation source on receptivity within the context of a research project developing and applying support tool technology. The need to better understand the dimensions of innovation and how they relate to the processes that determine user receptivity to support tools is emphasised.

A Conceptual Model of ‘Receptivity’ Applied to the Design and Deployment of Water Policy Mechanisms

The need to better understand how people and communities understand, interact with, and behave in relation to, water and water management systems has long been highlighted by both national and supra-national governmental bodies. Such understandings are of particular relevance to support the design and deployment of water policy instruments. We argue that, in analysing individual, community and organizational interactions with water as both a natural resource and a commodity, there is a need to move away from policy tool design and deployment perspectives which characterize consumer response as an artefact of social or economic status to one which explicitly incorporates the capacity for response as well as the ambition of policy. A framework for evaluating water management policy instruments based on a conceptual model of ‘receptivity’ is presented in detail and three case studies demonstrating its use in a variety of contexts (regional water management, water recycling, and water filters) are reported on. Comments on the relevance and scope of the approach are provided together with conclusions regarding strengths, weaknesses, and suitable application contexts.

Deconstructing the orange: the evolution of an agricultural milieu in Southern Greece

Knowledge relating to the coevolution of communities and the technological, economic and natural systems that sustain them comes from a variety of sources. However, interdisciplinary, or more specifically integrated, analyses that formally consider issue-driven and policy-relevant output are now required. This paper will draw upon a case study of crop change, in particular the rapid introduction of oranges, in the Argolid Valley in Greece, and will argue that crops and other agricultural artefacts are elements of complex processes that generate social structures that are more, or less, acceptable to different social groupings. We particularly focus on an illustration of the nature of coevolutionary linkages, and highlight the fluidity of stakeholder decision and opportunity spaces and their relationship to community flexibility and adaptivity. Finally, it will be argued that policies that attempt to affect crop choice have failed to consider the range of networks into which the crop will merge.

An organisational innovation perspective on change in water and wastewater systems – the implementation of the Water Framework Directive in England and Wales

This paper presents an assessment of how the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) is stimulating change in water and wastewater management. The paper aims to provide an organisational innovation contribution towards understanding the processes by which policy and legislation stimulate change in water and wastewater systems. Results were produced by analysing interviews with environmental managers from all water and sewerage companies in England and Wales. Results show that integrated water supply approaches are emerging in response to the WFD, while wastewater approaches are not changing to the same extent. Reasons for this difference are located in a mix of factors including: economic regulation; conflicting national and EU regulations; uncertainty; lock-in to infrastructure; the way in which different WaSCs frame business problems and opportunities, and a lack of technological knowledge. Results are discussed against an international review of water sector change and against government reviews of the water sector economic regulator.

Integrating Process and Factor Understanding of Environmental Innovation by Water Utilities

Innovations in technology and organisations are central to enabling the water sector to adapt to major environmental changes such as climate change, land degradation or drinking water pollution. While there are literatures on innovation as a process and on the factors that influence it, there is little research that integrates these. Development of such an integrated understanding of innovation is central to understanding how policy makers and organisations can stimulate and direct environmental innovation. In the research reported here a framework is developed that enables such an integrated analysis of innovation process and factors. From research interviews and the literature twenty factors were identified that affect the five stages of the environmental innovation process in English and Welsh water utilities. The environmental innovations investigated are measures taken by water utilities to reduce or prevent pollution in drinking water catchments rather than technical measures to treat water. These Source Control Interventions are similar to other environmental innovations, such as ecosystem and species conservation, in that they emphasise the mix of technology, management and engagement with multiple actors. Results show that in water utilities direct performance regulation and regulation that raises awareness of a ‘performance’ gap as a ‘problem’ can stimulate innovation, but only under particular organisational, natural physical and regulatory conditions. The integrated framework also suggests that while flexible or framework legislation (e.g. Water Framework Directive) does not stimulate innovation in itself, it has shaped the option spaces and characteristics of innovations selected towards source control instead of technical end-of-pipe solutions.

Implementing Pollution Source Control—Learning from the Innovation Process in English and Welsh Water Companies

Improving the stimulation and management of innovation by water utilities is a key mechanism through which the challenges of securing sustainable water and wastewater services will be achieved. This paper describes the process of adopting source control interventions (SCIs) by water and sewerage companies (WaSCs) in England and Wales. SCIs can be defined as efforts by water suppliers to control agricultural pollution where it arises. To investigate differences in the extent to which SCIs have and are being adopted across all ten WaSCs in England and Wales, Rogers’ five stage innovation model is used to structure and interpret results from a series of semi-structured interviews with raw water quality and catchment management personnel. Results suggest that to promote SCI innovation by WaSCs, regulation should be designed in two interdependent ways. First, regulation must generate awareness of a performance gap so as to set an agenda for change and initiate innovation. This can be achieved either through direct regulation or regulation which raises the awareness of an organisations performance gap, for example through additional monitoring. Simultaneously, regulation needs to create possibilities for implementation of innovation through enabling WaSCs to utilise SCIs where appropriate. Evidence from the research suggests that appropriate intermediary organisations can assist in this process by providing a resource of relevant and local knowledge and data. Future research should seek to characterise the factors affecting each stage in the WaSC innovation process both to confirm the conclusions of this study and to reveal more detail about various influences on innovation outcomes.

The influence of supply and sewerage area characteristics on water and sewerage companies responses to the Water Framework Directive

Using the example of raw water quality this paper examines the relationship between different spatial characteristics (geographical and physical properties) of Water and Sewerage Companies (WaSCs) supply and sewage areas and response to the Water Framework Directive. Results were obtained from thematic analysis and content analysis of 14 interviews with WaSCs representatives. Principal component analysis and cluster analysis of 51 WaSCs business function characteristics was employed to derive groups of similar WaSCs. Results indicate that there is difference in how WaSCs approach raw water quality issues. It appears that small WaSCs with relatively large agricultural areas in their supply catchments are more likely to seek managerial solutions to raw water quality problems.

An interdisciplinary approach to the assessment of water recycling technology options

Whilst work on the development of engineering options for water recycling has continued apace over the last decade, less attention has been paid to the problem of selecting appropriate technologies for particular applications. This paper firstly reviews the motivations for a cross-disciplinary approach to technology selection in this context, highlighting the process of translating research findings into practical and socially acceptable opportunities. It goes on to report early experience from an interdisciplinary collaboration which seeks to assess the suitability of specific water recycling options for urban environments. Conclusions relate primarily to the effective application of interdisciplinary research programmes to water management issues.

Sustainability and Systems Thinking

Unchecked technological development in general is at least partly responsible for some of the undesirable and survival threatening phenomena observed today. Problems of pollution, over-production, resource (and capital) concentration, restricted product lifecycles, and lack of social control, have all been attributed to ‘technology’. However, whilst there is general consensus regarding the role of technology in creating the problem, there are diverse attitudes towards its future contribution (the debate between the various positions is extensively developed by Gillot and Kumar, 1995).