WRM co-organizes a workshop 'towards a reflexive approach' on water modelling

IRI-THESys of the Humboldt University of Berlin and the Water Resources Management Group of the Wageningen University organise the online workshop 'Towards a reflexive approach: Connecting critical research on water modelling',
a first workshop intended as a space for exchange and learning on 19 and 20 January. A number of scholars and researchers will present their research, discuss modelling practices and reflect on participatory design and interdesciplinary approaches.

Numerical models, including hydrological, socio-hydrological, and hydro-economic models, are important tools through which water flows have been researched and governed. Models are used in many different ways, including to document water distributions, predict future conditions and inform policy making and, according to some authors, they can be compatible with and instrumental in fostering progressive water distributions and geographies.

A growing number of researchers has begun to critically engage with modelling practices and processes. These works underscore how model(ler)s and modelling practices are not neutral; models embody representations and simplifications of the (hydrosocial) world that foster processes of ordering and recognizing the agency of some actors, thereby excluding others. The subjectivities of modellers, contingent on particular research traditions, the requirements of funding agencies, the influence of actors participating in modelling exercises, available resources including knowledge, as well as technological limits, e.g. computational power, shape not only how water flows are known but ultimately actual water distributions.

The increase of critical research on modelling practices and processes in water merits an identification of, and connection between, researchers and research-groups working on this topic.

The workshop aims to:

1. share experiences and examples of critical, creative and reflexive engagement (practice and research) with modelling practices and processes that relate with water use, management and governance, and
2. set the basis for future collaborations of researchers from natural and social sciences across all stages of their career with experience with critical research on modelling.

Outcomes will be communicated soon after the completion of the workshop.