WFM 6209Interdisciplinary Field Research Methodology

in Water Management

Research and Research Methods in IWRM

Interdisciplinarity in Research

M. Shah Alam Khan

ProfessorInstitute of Water and Flood Management,Bangladesh University of Engineering and

Technology

• An examination of a subject from different points of view; creation of new knowledge; hunt for the truth; the way you educate yourself

• NOT just a trip to the library to pick up a stack of materials, or picking the first five hits from a your ‘GOOGLE’ search

• Fieldwork is not simply gathering ‘facts’. It is informed by a priori understanding of the processes to be studied

Research ?

Disciplines, Boundaries, Knowledge continuum`The world has problems, but universities have departments.’‘We are not students of some subject matter, but students of problems. And problems may cut right across the borders of any subject matter or discipline.’

Examples:How do ‘hartals’ affect us?How does the hydrological cycle affect and is affected by social processes?

Integrative Research

Integrative Concept: A definition of IWRM

IWRM is a process, involving all stakeholders in the watershed or basin, who together as a group, cooperatively work toward identifying the resource issues; developing and implementing a water resources management plan with solutions that are environmentally, socially and economically sustainable.

IWRM: Integration

• Different Uses of Water• Analytical Perspectives• Different Institutions responsible for water

management• Geographical Integration• Integration of water resource management into a

broader agenda of development

Disciplinary Studies

1. Within bounds of one academic discipline

2. Disciplinary goal setting3. No cooperation with other

disciplines4. Audience is the ‘club’ of kin

within the discipline5. Development of new

disciplinary knowledge and theory

Multidisciplinary Studies

1. Multiple academic disciplines

2. Goal setting under one thematic umbrella

3. Loose exchange of ideas

4. Research Process is parallel

5. Disciplinary theory development

6. No crossing of boundaries to create new theory/ knowledge

7. Only comparison of results

“Staple in” Individual Reports

Participatory Studies

1. Involve academic researchers and non academic participants

2. Working together to solve a common problem

3. Exchange of knowledge , but NOT to create new knowledge

4. May be disciplinary or multidisciplinary

5. Not necessarily research, goal may be academic or to

6. Solve a live problem in context

Levels of Stakeholders Participation

Interdisciplinary Studies

1. Crosses disciplinary boundaries

2. Common goal setting

3. Integration of disciplines

4. To solve a common goal

5. Focus is academic

6. Development of integrated knowledge and theory

Transdisciplinary Studies

1. Crosses disciplines and scientific/academic boundaries

2. Common goal setting

3. Integration of disciplines and non academic participants

4. Development of integrated knowledge and theory among science and society

Socio-technicalVs

Sociotechnical

Interdisciplinarity in an Individual.

End