Addressing the social aspects of sustainable water management

The Learning for Sustainability site - http://learningforsustainability.net - brings together resources to help us address the social and capacity building aspects of managing our water and other  natural resources in a sustainable manner. This resource has been substantially revised and updated over the past month as a guide to on-line resources for researchers and practitioners interested in supporting social  learning and collective action. The site highlights the wide range of social skills and processes that  are needed to support collaborative change and capacity-building initiatives, and structures these in a practical way. This brings links to several hundred annotated on-line resources together in one easy to access site.

A new section on governance has been added through this update. This is accessible directly off the front page menu system, and provides managers, policy makers and others with links to governance resources that support social change and adaptation. Other new resource sections link to resources to help with community resilience, adaptive management, and visioning and scenario development.

A central guides, tools and checklists section provides practical guidance to help readers address issues involved in managing multi-stakeholder participation and engagement initiatives. Lessons are drawn from different sectors including agriculture, marine, health and conservation. Approaches to integration are highlighted through links to management efforts in a range of areas including catchments and watersheds, natural resources, HIV/AIDS, climate change, and disasters. A new page in this section now covers tools, tips and techniques for facilitators and other social engagement specialists. Other site sections provide links to best and emerging practice in specific areas including social learning, adaptive management, network building and mapping, dialogue, knowledge management, and evaluation and reflection.  Research links cover action research, systems thinking, participation, integration and interdisciplinarity. One page lists on-line resources for both post-graduate research students and their supervisors.

The Learning for Sustainability site - http://learningforsustainability.net - also manages additional pages on finding volunteering and job opportunities in the sustainability sector. Feedback is welcomed, and viewers are encouraged to suggest sites to add. All this material is easily accessible through the main site indexing system.