UF Water Institute FACETS Project Reports About Water-Related Communications

Gilchrist Blue Spring on the Santa Fe River in Florida

Back when I was working for the Ichetucknee Alliance, I was invited to participate as a representative of that group in the University of Florida Water Institute's FACETS project; FACETS is the acronym for "Floridan Aquifer Collaborative Engagement for Sustainability."

The project brought agriculturalists (i.e., "growers"), environmentalists, scientists, and public policy people together to examine how changes in crops, agricultural practices, and land use could impact water quality and quantity in the Santa Fe River basin in Florida and the Flint River basin in Georgia.

Not surprisingly, one of the conclusions was that there is no "magic bullet" to restore water quality and quantity in both of those areas; however, there were some interesting findings that might be used to nudge positive changes in very localized areas within those basins.

The part of the research that I was most interested in, however, delved into how the various participants in the project communicated with each other. Some of those findings have now been published and I'll list the links to those reports below. I may come back and add my summaries of the reports a bit later in subsequent blog posts but for right now, I just want to get the word out about these reports in case anyone is interested in reading them--and if you are engaged in communicating about our water issues, you really might want to take some time to check these out!

Communicating About Water in the Floridan Aquifer Region: Part 1—What Do People Know About Water Science? by Sadie Hundemer and Shenara Ramadan

Communicating About Water in the Floridan Aquifer Region: Part 2—Do People Believe Water Science? by Sadie Hundemer and Shenara Ramadan

Communicating About Water in the Floridan Aquifer Region: Part 3—How the Right Messages and Messengers Can Increase Bipartisan Support for Water Policy by Sadie Hundemer and Shenara Ramadan

Communicating About Water in the Floridan Aquifer Region: Part 4—The Media’s Role in Water Perceptions by Sadie Hundemer and Shenara Ramadan

Communicating About Water in the Floridan Aquifer Region: Part 5—Increasing Collaboration Between Producers and Environmentalists on Water Challenges by Sadie Hundemer and Shenara Ramadan

Communicating About Water in the Floridan Aquifer Region: Part 6—Stakeholders’ Mental Models of Regional Water Challenges by Sadie Hundemer and Shenara Ramadan

What Do Florida and Georgia Residents Know About Water? by Sadie Hundemer

All of the above reports and links are publicly available on the FACETS website here.

The report on the final FACETS meeting is here.