
Uta WehnIHE Delft Institute for Water Education | UNESCO-IHE · Hydro-informatics and socio-technical innovation
Uta Wehn
PhD, MSc, BSc (hon)
About
130
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Introduction
Additional affiliations
January 2016 - present
August 2013 - December 2015
Publications
Publications (130)
The marine environment is facing serious changes. This requires scientific understanding of the ocean’s responses to pressures and management actions to provide the foundation for sustainable development. At the same time, the production of knowledge for a more sustainable world is undergoing rapid change with the uptake of citizen science as means...
Sustainability transformations in marine governance in Sweden via social learning
Dr. Angelo Jonas Imperiale and Dr. Uta Wehn describe the MISTRA C2B2 programme’s unique approach to promoting sustainability transformations in Sweden’s marine governance through social learning in Living Labs. The Mistra programme Co-creating Better Blue (C2B2) aims...
This report is licenced under: CC BY 4.0 The workshop was organised by Katja Mayer and Claudia Göbel in collaboration with the Zentrum Soziale Innovation ZSI.
Cite as: Mayer, Katja; Göbel, Claudia; Alhutter, Doris; Aspee Quiroga, Nicolle; Berr,Katharina; Cavalcanti de Alcântara, Rafaela; Gichuki, Leah; Gold, Margaret; Golumbic, Yaela; Haklay, Muki...
A broad understanding of the aims and objectives of the international open science movement was recently adopted with the 2021 UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science, expanding the focus of open science to include scientific knowledge, infrastructures, knowledge systems and the open engagement of societal actors. In response, recent discussions on s...
The MICS project has developed a platform, tools and resources for assessing
the impact of citizen-science projects. Using both rule-based systems and neural
networks, the MICS platform scores planned, current or past citizen-science
projects on their anticipated or achieved impact across five “domains”: society,
science, governance, the economy an...
Co-creating a sustainable blue economy for sweden
Wehn, Linders and Barquet explain how the MISTRA C2B2 programme is working to bring about transformative change in participatory ocean governance in Sweden. The ocean – the new frontier of human activity – is being redefined by new discoveries, technologies, national strategies, and ecological imper...
Water, along with the associated impact of climate change, represents one of the biggest societal challenges of this
century. A challenge that needs to be met with concerted global cooperation and action. This paper produced by Water
Europe’s ‘Water Beyond Europe’ Working Group emphasises the role of dialogue and partnerships in accelerating action...
The effects of citizen science are wide ranging, influencing science, society, the economy, the environment, as well as individual participants. However, in many citizen science projects, impact evaluation is still overly simplistic. This is particularly the case when assessing the impact of participation in citizen science on the environmental att...
Access to accurate and trusted data for transboundary water management is important but not always sufficiently appreciated. Based on the Lake Victoria water levels decline, this technical note demonstrates that when a water crisis unfolds, tensions can arise because of absence of relevant data and uncertainty over data that are available. These ma...
Citizen science has the potential to impact across a range of different domains, including the areas of science, the economy, the environment, governance and society. However, whilst the potential impact of citizen science is well documented, limitations exist when attempting to measure it in a quantifiable way. Whilst attempts have been made, ther...
• Aim: This chapter introduces citizen science as a means for co-monitoring and co-managing impact of ecosystems and inland waters and what comes into play when implementing it.
• Main concepts covered: characteristics and different forms of citizen science, community-based monitoring and co-management.
• Main methods covered: different dimensions...
The proliferation of Citizen Science initiatives has increased the expectations of practitioners who need data for design, analysis, management and research in environmental applications. Many Citizen Science experiences have reported tangible societal benefits related to improved governance of natural resources due to the involvement of citizens a...
To address water and climate change-related challenges in Africa, there is a need to identify and scale appropriate local existing innovation and solutions. This implies effective interaction among stakeholders in the water sector to generate, increase and exchange knowledge and innovation. To foster such interactions, AfriAlliance designed and org...
The successful interaction amongst relevant stakeholders in water and climate management in Africa is of principal importance when trying to address local water challenges and provide effective solutions. Yet there was no mechanism in place to know who has the information, which organisations are the bridges, and which are the bottlenecks to water...
Citizen science has the potential to impact across a range of different domains, including the areas of science, the economy, the environment, governance and society. However, whilst the potential impact of citizen science is well documented, limitations exist when attempting to measure it in a quantifiable way. Whilst attempts have been made, ther...
WeObserve delivered the first European-wide Citizen Observatory (CO) knowledge platform to share best practices, to address challenges and to inform practitioners, policy makers and funders of COs. We present key insights from WeObserve activities into leveraging challenges to create interlinked solutions, connecting with international frameworks a...
Over the past decade, citizen science has experienced growth and popularity as a scientific practice and as a new form of stakeholder engagement and public participation in science or in the generation of new knowledge. One of the key requirements for realising the potential of citizen science is evidence and demonstration of its impact and value....
Citizen science has expanded rapidly over the past decades. Yet, defining citizen science and its boundaries remained a challenge, and this is reflected in the literature—for example in the proliferation of typologies and definitions. There is a need for identifying areas of agreement and disagreement within the citizen science practitioners commun...
Over the past decade, citizen science has experienced growth and popularity as a scientific practice and as a new form of stakeholder engagement and public participation in science or in the generation of new knowledge. One of the key requirements for realising the potential of citizen science is evidence and demonstration of its impact and value....
In response to the need for approaches to understand how citizen science is currently influencing environmental policy and associated decision making, we devised the Citizen Science Impact StoryTelling Approach (CSISTA). We iteratively designed instruments to be used as tools primarily for citizen science practitioners seeking to understand or comm...
Citizen science has the potential to impact across a range of different domains, including the areas of science, the economy, the environment, governance and society. However, whilst the potential impact of citizen science is well documented, limitations exist when attempting to measure it in a quantifiable way. Whilst attempts have been made, ther...
Tracking progress towards the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires high-quality, timely, and accessible data, often in areas where data are rarely available. Problems exist due to socioeconomic variations between countries and the qualitative nature of certain indicators in their definition. Citizen science has the potentia...
Citizen science has expanded rapidly over the past decades. Yet, defining citizen science and its boundaries remained a challenge, and this is reflected in the literature - for example in the proliferation of typologies and definitions. There is a need for identifying areas of agreement and disagreement within the citizen science practitioners comm...
While it is increasingly important to strengthen the existing knowledge base in Africa to adequately respond to the rising risks and impacts of climate change on water resources, a significant research gap remains to identify areas and mechanisms to cope with these societal challenges. The aim of the paper is twofold: i) to provide subject-specific...
Citizen observatories are a relatively recent form of citizen science. As part of the flood risk management strategy of the Brenta-Bacchiglione catchment, a citizen observatory for flood risk management has been proposed and is currently being implemented. Citizens are involved through monitoring water levels and obstructions and providing other re...
The last decades have seen changes in the water innovation landscape in Africa, with many countries introducing innovative approaches to managing water resources and the provision of water services. However, little knowledge exists on how water innovators operate in this changing environment. The objective of this explorative study is to shed light...
In different parts of the world, a variety of initiatives are being implemented to promote water innovation. This paper explores the role of virtual incubators in fostering water-related innovations in Africa, using the case of VIA Water, a Dutch programme that promotes water innovation in African cities. Virtual incubators operate and provide thei...
The past years have seen a rising number of initiatives to foster water-related innovations around the world. Many of such initiatives take the incubation approach to support individuals or entities with potential for developing marketable water innovations. Despite the growing research on incubation, the innovation processes of incubatees - which...
The purpose of this special issue is to constructively evaluate the progress made in establishing SEIS. This is in part motivated by the commitment made by countries to have SEIS in place in Europe and Central Asia by 2021 and to determine if countries in the region are likely to achieve this objective. Efforts to establish SEIS in the pan-European...
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a vision for achieving a sustainable future. Reliable, timely, comprehensive, and consistent data are critical for measuring progress towards, and ultimately achieving, the SDGs. Data from citizen science represent one new source of data that could be used for SDG reporting and monitoring. However, in...
Successfully tracking progress towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires high-quality, timely and accessible data, often in areas where little data is currently available. Current baselines and indexes developed for the measurement of SDG progress rely on data from formal international and national bodies, resulting i...
Citizen observatories are a relatively recent form of citizen science. As part of the flood risk management strategy of the Brenta-Bacchiglione catchment, a citizen observatory for flood risk management has been proposed and is currently being implemented. Citizens are involved through monitoring water levels and obstructions and providing other re...
Perceived positive impacts of frugal innovation for sustainable global
development have triggered a variety of programmes to foster such innovation. To
increase the impact of these programmes, it is important to understand how they
function. In this paper, we develop a conceptual framework for the analysis of
interventions that foster frugal innova...
This chapter highlights the challenges and opportunities in promoting research, innovation and science to support informed decision-making.
Abstract. Citizen observatories are a relatively recent form of citizen science, which involve citizens in making environmental observations over a period of time. These observations can help to inform the decision making of local authorities and other stakeholders, creating a platform for two-way interaction between citizens and public agencies. A...
Over the past decades, the potential of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to improve water management has been demonstrated. However, the development and/or adoption of ICT-focused water innovations in developing countries does not seem to occur at the expected pace, which calls for suitable innovation approaches. This chapter inves...
Traditional data sources are not sufficient for measuring the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. New and non-traditional sources of data are required. Citizen science is an emerging example of a non-traditional data source that is already making a contribution. In this Perspective, we present a roadmap that outlines how citizen science c...
The reliance of environmental management on comprehensive, high quality, timely and (ideally) affordable data and information has given rise to the need for ‘shared environmental information systems (SEIS). Community-based monitoring and information systems or ‘citizen observatories’ are a form of SEIS whereby citizens are involved in new roles suc...
Advances in technology and the proliferation of data are providing new opportunities for monitoring and tracking the progress of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1. As the latest framework for assessing and monitoring the alleviation of poverty, inequalities and environmental degradation, progress on meeting the 17 SDGs...
Much attention is being paid to the design and implementation of community-based monitoring initiatives of water and environment, and how to attract more citizens to participate in such initiatives. Although mass participation in collecting and sharing water-related or environmental data and good project design and implementation are key factors fo...
Community-based monitoring of water and environmental resources is believed to have the potential to help produce more or better water and environmental data, increase public participation in environmental monitoring, respond to issues of common community concern and enhance informed, democratic and transparent environmental decision making. Despit...
Building on the experience acquired by coordinating the production of the “UN-Water SDG 6 Synthesis Report 2018 on Water and Sanitation” and complemented with information coming from the latest editions of the United Nations World Water Development Report (WWDR; coordinated by WWAP on behalf of UN-Water), WWAP has presented the challenges related t...
In the Anthropocene, we are looking at an impending future that is characterized by resource scarcity. In this paper we ask how socio-technical arrangements can facilitate a transition from the course we are on today to one of adaptation and conservation. Taking the case of citizen observatories (COs) for water quality conservation as an illustrati...
In the 1990s, delegated management emerged as a promising public policy approach for improving the performance of the water supply sector in many developing countries. In many cases, however, the obligations of delegated management contracts reportedly have not been met, often leading to early termination or non-renewal. Drawing on theories in poli...
Innovation is recognized as one of the cornerstone of development at the nation and global level with effects at many levels (individuals behaviours, life styles, employment, health, mobility, privacy, sustainability, etc.). Such pervasive effect has called for intervention on intended and non-intended consequences of innovation at the management,...
To improve hydrological predictions, real-time measurements derived from traditional physical sensors are integrated within mathematic models. Recently, traditional sensors are being complemented with crowdsourced data (social sensors). Although measurements from social sensors can be low cost and more spatially distributed, other factors like spat...
The urgent need for innovation to address multifaceted and intertwined water-related challenges is becoming increasingly clear, acknowledged and responded to with cumulating sources and amounts of funding. Nevertheless, the water sector has been claimed to be less innovative than other sectors. This Special Volume (SV) on the dynamics of water inno...
Innovation systems theory stresses the central importance of knowledge and the transfer of knowledge between the different actors of an innovation system, yet there are no methodological tools to systematically analyse the dynamics of such relationships. In this paper we propose a multi-disciplinary approach drawing on social psychology to integrat...
Innovation is recognized as one of the cornerstone of development at the nation and global level with effects at many levels (individuals behaviours, life styles, employment, health, mobility, privacy, sustainability, etc.). Such pervasive effect has called for intervention on intended and non-intended consequences of innovation at the management,...
The OECD Principles on Water Governance set out various requirements for stakeholder engagement. Coupled with conceptualisations of social learning, this paper asks how we define and enact stakeholder engagement. We explore the actual practice of engagement of stakeholders in three fields of water governance. Our results suggest that a key consider...
The lack of access to basic sanitation is a global concern and alarmingly prevalent in low- and middle- income countries. In the densely populated settlements of these countries, on-site sanitation systems are usually the only feasible option because dwellers there have no sewers in place to connect to. Using on-site sanitation facilities results i...
As knowledge and capacity development (KCD) increasingly gets acknowledged as
crucial for development, the need to evaluate its impact increases, too. However,
evaluating KCD in practice remains a challenge. This paper aims to synthesize the
current wisdom on the topic of KCD evaluation in the water sector. We discuss two
leading approaches to KCD...
WORKING PAPER As knowledge and capacity development (KCD) increasingly gets acknowledged as a strategy for water sector development, the need to evaluate its development impact and cost effectiveness increases, too. However, evaluating KCD in practice remains a challenge. Notably, this is due to the difficulty to define capacity operationally (due...
Crowd-sourced environmental observations are increasingly being considered as having the potential to enhance the spatial and temporal resolution of current data streams from terrestrial and areal sensors. The rapid diffusion of ICTs during the past decades has facilitated the process of data collection and sharing by the general public and has res...
Despite extensive and continuous efforts to strengthen the capacity of people, organizations and institutions, there is evidence of an increasing gap between the existing and required capacities within the water sector. Consensus seems to be emerging regarding the need for national strategies to improve water sector capacity development. This paper...
The role of technological innovation within the context of governance processes is often embraced with rhetorical enthusiasm and seen as a de facto enabler for democratic decision-making. Underpinning this enthusiasm is the leap of faith made from transparency to trust, from complexity to coherence. The belief that using new tools for e-participati...
Unsustainable socio-economic practices manifest prominently in water crises and water-related disasters. This turns water managers into prototypical sustainability professionals, and important change agents in a broader societal transformation towards sustainability. Water education is, de facto, sustainability education. By bridging the gap betwee...
Despite the considerable progress of engineering works, flooding continues to be a major challenge which is increasingly being recognised. This realisation has resulted in a shift in flood risk management from leaning heavily on structural measures to the incorporation of non-structural initiatives, such as communication about flood risks that is c...
In recent decades, there has been a steady rise of knowledge and capacity development (KCD) interventions targeting organisations in developing countries. This paper argues that very often the main challenge facing organisations is not the development of knowledge and capacity per se, but their actual use. Drawing on the case of Uganda's National W...
n order for citizen science initiatives to pan out well, various actors need to be willing to engage in citizen science activities. The particular interest in this chapter lies with the citizens and their motivations to participate in ICT-enabled citizen science since, arguably, without citizen participation, there is no citizen science activity. T...
Water operator partnerships (WOP) have been recognized as a means for improving the performance of water utilities through capacity development and knowledge transfer in order to meet the sustainable development goals for water and sanitation. Nevertheless, there is a gap in understanding the effectiveness of knowledge transfer in a WOP. So far, th...
Non-Governmental Organizations often collaborate with other stakeholders to strengthen the capacities of rural communities. The Community Centered Conservation Development Project (CCCDP) was introduced by the WWF to improve community livelihoods and enhance conservation of the Silowana complex in Western Province of Zambia. The project is a joint...
Developing countries often face challenges when attempting to improve poor performances in the delivery of
water, sanitation and hygiene services. Policymakers have focused their attention on national capacity development strategies as instruments to promote state-owned and -driven policy to improve capacity development (CD). The results of this em...
Many water operators in developing countries have serious knowledge and capacity-related challenges that lead to poor service delivery. Water Operator Partnerships (WOPs) are used as a mechanism to strengthen the capacity of water operators for improved performance, by transferring new knowledge from mentoring water operators to mentee water operat...
The WeSenseIt project defines citizen observatories as “A method, an environment and an infrastructure supporting an information ecosystem for communities and citizens, as well as emergency operators and policymakers, for discussion, monitoring and intervention on situations, places and events” . A collaborative approach has been taken to develop s...
Many water operators in developing countries have serious knowledge and capacity-related challenges that lead to poor service delivery. Water Operator Partnerships (WOPs) are used to strengthen the capacity of water operators for improved performance, by transferring knowledge from mentoring water operators to mentee water operators. Knowledge mana...
ABSTRACT Citizen science initiatives in different contexts attract members of the general public to participate in scientific activities. In recent years, advancements in information communication technologies (ICTs) have facilitated easier, faster and potentially viral participation of members of the public from all around the world in citizen sci...
Crowd-sourced environmental observations are being increasingly considered as having the potential to enhance the spatial and temporal resolution of current data streams from terrestrial and areal sensors. The rapid diffusion of ICTs during the past decades has facilitated the process of data collection and sharing by the general public (so-called...
Session 3 on Business Model, Sustainability, Rankings