Designing effective foresight processes to anticipate and prepare for climate change in the Murray-Darling Basin

The project will investigate how the diverse values attributed to water in the Murray-Darling Basin can be explored through participatory foresight to promote transformational adaptation to climate change. 

About this project

Amid uncertainty in the Murray-Darling Basin, key actors involved in planning and water policy reform are increasingly willing to employ guided participatory processes, to develop visions of sustainability for the upcoming 20 – 30 years. This research will explore how stakeholders who participate in open dialogues in these collaborative spaces, can successfully co-produce shared visions of sustainable water futures under climate change. Bringing a range of stakeholders together will likely result in the introduction of diverse values and worldviews, thus I will examine how diverse values and relationships with water, influence the process and outcomes, and are reflected in the resulting visions for the future. Building on previous work that has explored the multiple values of water in the Basin, the study will provide an empirical examination of the role of values in achieving the change that is necessary to adapt and transform under climate change. 

A preliminary study will establish a benchmark of the existing water value perspectives. Subsequent discourse and comparative cases (participatory foresight projects) will facilitate an examination of how value diversity and pluralism are represented in future-making. Through dialogue and observation, I will engage with stakeholders to unpack whether shared ways of perceiving the world result in them coalescing around a vision of what water future/s should be pursued in the Basin.

Outcomes

Outcomes of the project should provide an improved understanding of how stakeholders’ conceptions of and connections to water – reflected in the diversity of values, influence their choices of desired futures under conditions of scarcity and uncertainty. Learnings will support the development of participatory foresight practices that enable stakeholders to navigate diverse values in decision-making over sustainable water futures.