2018 SWCS International Annual Conference July 29-August 1, 2018 Albuquerque Convention Center

1. Water For Agriculture
Creating an Engaged Approach to Water For & From Agriculture
Kathryn Brasier, Professor of Rural Sociology, Penn State
Walter E. Whitmer, Project Coordinator, Penn State
Weston Eaton, Assistant Research Professor, Penn State
Elyzabeth Engle, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, McDaniel College
Mark Burbach, Environmental Scientist, Univ. of Nebraska-Lincoln
Clinton Williams, Lead Research Soil Scientist, USDA ARS
Presented at Soil and Water Conservation Society Annual Conference, Albuquerque, NM
July 31, 2018
WATER for AGRICULTURE
This work is supported by the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) Water for Agriculture grant no. 2017-68007-26584/project
accession no. 1013079 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

2. WATER for AGRICULTURE
What is the Puzzle?
• Increasing push for
stakeholder engagement in
natural resource management
• Assumption is engagement will
lead to improved
management, but how?
• Two fundamental questions:
• What is engagement?
• What changes because of
engagement?

3. WATER for AGRICULTURE
What Is Water for Agriculture?
A multi-disciplinary, four-year cooperative
project that promotes sustainable water
for agriculture through:
- Implementing stakeholder engagement
in agricultural landscapes
- Testing engagement’s impacts on
individual participants and partner
organizations
- Linking observed changes to biophysical
outcomes
- Disseminating research outcomes to
influence engagement practices
- Evaluating our approach to engaged
team science

4. WATER for AGRICULTURE
Specific Goals & Activities
• Engagement
• Work in cooperation with, and in service to
five communities in Pennsylvania, Nebraska
and Arizona
• Assist these communities in addressing the
water and agricultural issues that matter
most to them
• Research (“The Science of Engagement”)
• Conduct pre-/post-engagement research to
identify changes at individual, organizational,
and community level
• Work cooperatively with stakeholders to
identify and conduct biophysical research
• Identify strategies for effective engaged
team science
• Dissemination
• Assess whether and how stakeholder
engagement can address critical water and
agriculture issues elsewhere
• Consult with partners in Israel and Australia

5. WATER for AGRICULTURE
What Is Engagement?

6. WATER for AGRICULTURE
Working Definition:
Community-Based Stakeholder Engagement
An approach to community-level
action that focuses on:
• Building relationships and trust;
community and sense of place
• Surfacing and incorporating views of
multiple stakeholders
• Recognizing concerns, knowledge, and
contributions of all stakeholders
• Identifying issues, opportunities; setting
priorities
• Developing common frame, directions
and actions
• Leveraging and growing resources

7. WATER for AGRICULTURE
Engagement Approaches
• PA and NE – modified strategic
planning and implementation
process
• Issues and processes driven by local
leaderships teams
• AZ – modified Delphi technique
• Initial community meeting followed
by iterative surveys and discussions
with a panel of local experts

8. WATER for AGRICULTURE
Guiding Research Questions
• What change in views, understandings, personal norms, personal and
collective identity, and civic skills may be evident in individuals who
participate in engagement activities?
• What change, if any, becomes evident with characteristics of network
structures for organizations participating in engagement activities?
• What attitudinal, belief, or behavioral changes are evident among
residents of communities where engagement activities are
undertaken?
• How are these changes leveraged to achieve individual and/or
organizational actions to manage water for and from agriculture?

9. WATER for AGRICULTURE
Inside the Black Box of Engagement: Building and Activating Community
Capacity for Managing Water in Agricultural Landscapes
Sense of Community
•Collectively held values,
norms, and vision
•Sense of place
Frame of issues,
solutions
Empathy; Understanding
of others
Obligation to others
Level of commitment
•Sense of responsibility
for problem
Expectations for self and
others to act
Potential for positive
impact
Efficacy
Ability to solve problems
•Leadership;
collaboration
Planning and decision-
making
Capitalizing on diverse
views
Incorporating research,
science, data
Activation of resources
•Social
Human
Cultural
Built
Natural
Economic
Political
Adapted from Chaskin’s Community Capacity concept
Community
Engagement

10. WATER for AGRICULTURE
Longitudinal, Replication Case Study Design
5 Cases in 3 States
BaselineDataCollection
Stakeholder
Interviews
Network
Analyses
Community
Surveys
EngagementEvaluation
Event
Evaluations
Focus Groups
with
Leadership
Teams
Event
Observation
PostDataCollection
Stakeholder
Interviews
Network
Analyses
Community
Surveys

11. WATER for AGRICULTURE
Where are we now?
YEAR ONE –
PRELIMINARY RESEARCH
YEARS TWO AND THREE –
STRUCTURED ENGAGEMENT PROCESSES
YEAR FOUR –
FINAL ASSESSMENT/IMPACTS
Literature reviews Relationship building and trust Sharing findings
Conceptual Model development Review of current networks and
biophysical data
Model refinement
Stakeholder identification Issues identification
Stakeholder interviews (Pre) Assess Information/research needs and
opportunities
Stakeholder interviews (Post)
Identify preliminary biophysical
data sources and needs
Priority setting & implementation plan Assess practice and environmental
change
Social network analysis (Pre) Engagement plan Social network analysis (Post)
Community surveys (Pre) Implementation activities, action research Community surveys (Post)
Formative and Process Evaluation

12. WATER for AGRICULTURE
What We’ve Learned (so far)
about Science of Engagement
• “Black box” of engagement
• Growing literature
• Diverse engagement
definitions, approaches
• Limited audiences
• Uncoordinated science
• Shallow engagement
• What is our “value-added” in
communities? Do no harm!
• How do biophysical and social
scientists engage in this space? 0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Articles on Stakeholder Engagement in Ag/Water, by Year

13. WATER for AGRICULTURE
What We’ve Learned (so far)
about Team Science
• Administration matters:
• Timely, iterative communication
• Distance technology has its limitations
• Cross-cutting team organization
• Creating a new culture?
• Common language
• Disciplinary cultures and reward systems
• Clarify expectations about ways of
working on team projects
• Transparency of resources, budgets
• Strategies and technologies:
• Relationship building => trust
• Working principles (charter)
• Publication guidelines
• Everyone needs a job
• Reflexivity

14. WATER for AGRICULTURE
Thank you!
For further information, contact:
Kathryn Brasier
Professor of Rural Sociology
Department of Agricultural Economics,
Sociology and Education
Penn State University
814-865-7321
kbrasier@psu.edu
http://water4ag.psu.edu/
This work is supported by the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) Water for Agriculture grant no. 2017-68007-26584/project
accession no. 1013079 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

15. WATER for AGRICULTURE
Working Definition: Stakeholders
All those who either can affect, or will be affected by, a decision
or initiative
• Farmers, producers, and ag businesses
• Ag organizations
• Local governments
• Water authorities
• Environmental organizations
• Community and interest organizations
• Regulatory agencies
• Service and information providers
• Researchers
• Landowners and other residents
Concerted effort to expand participation beyond “usual suspects”