Knowledge co-production and boundary work offer planners a new frame for critically designing a social process that fosters collaborative implementation of resulting plans. Knowledge co-production ...involves stakeholders from diverse knowledge systems working iteratively toward common vision and action. Boundary work is a means of creating permeable knowledge boundaries that satisfy the needs of multiple social groups while guarding the functional integrity of contributing knowledge systems. Resulting products are boundary objects of mutual interest that maintain coherence across all knowledge boundaries. We examined how knowledge co-production and boundary work can bridge the gap between planning and implementation and promote cross-sectoral cooperation. We applied these concepts to well-established stages in regional conservation planning within a national scale conservation planning project aimed at identifying areas for conserving rivers and wetlands of South Africa and developing an institutional environment for promoting their conservation. Knowledge co-production occurred iteratively over 4 years in interactive stakeholder workshops that included co-development of national freshwater conservation goals and spatial data on freshwater biodiversity and local conservation feasibility; translation of goals into quantitative inputs that were used in Marxan to select draft priority conservation areas; review of draft priority areas; and packaging of resulting map products into an atlas and implementation manual to promote application of the priority area maps in 37 different decision-making contexts. Knowledge co-production stimulated dialogue and negotiation and built capacity for multi-scale implementation beyond the project. The resulting maps and information integrated diverse knowledge types of over 450 stakeholders and represented > 1000 years of collective experience. The maps provided a consistent national source of information on priority conservation areas for rivers and wetlands and have been applied in 25 of the 37 use contexts since their launch just over 3 years ago. When framed as a knowledge co-production process supported by boundary work, regional conservation plans can be developed into valuable boundary objects that offer a tangible tool for multiagency cooperation around conservation. Our work provides practical guidance for promoting uptake of conservation science and contributes to an evidence base on how conservation efforts can be improved. La coproducción de conocimiento y el trabajo de frontera le ofrecen a los planeadores un marco nuevo para diseñar críticamente un proceso social que fomente la implementación de los planes resultantes en colaboración. La coproducción de conocimiento involucra a accionistas de diversos sistemas de conocimiento trabajando repetidamente hacia una visión y acción común. El trabajo de frontera es un medio de creación de fronteras permeables de conocimiento que satisfacen las necesidades de múltiples grupos sociales mientras mantienen la integridad funcional de los sistemas de conocimiento contribuyentes. Los productos resultantes son objetos fronterizos de interés mutuo que mantienen la coherencia a lo largo de todas las fronteras del conocimiento. Examinamos cómo la coproducción de conocimiento y el trabajo de frontera pueden resolver el vacío entre la planeación y la implementación y promover la cooperación entre sectores. Aplicamos estos conceptos a las fases bien establecidas de la planeación de la conservación regional dentro de un proyecto de planeación de la conservación a escala nacional enfocado a la identificación de áreas para la conservación de ríos y humedales de Sudáfrica y al desarrollo de un ambiente institucional para promover su conservación. La coproducción de conocimiento apareció repetidamente a lo largo de cuatro años en talleres interactivos de trabajo para los accionistas, que incluyeron el co-desarrollo de objetivos de conservación del agua dulce nacional e información espacial sobre la biodiversidad de agua dulce y la viabilidad de la conservación local; la traducción de las metas a aportes cuantitativos que se usaron en Marxan para seleccionar áreas de conservación de proyectos prioritarios; la revisión de áreas de proyectos prioritarios; y el empaquetamiento de los productos cartográficos resultantes para promover la aplicación del mapa de área prioritaria resultante en 37 contextos de toma de decisiones. La coproducción de conocimiento estimuló el diálogo y la negociación y construyó la capacidad para la implementación multiescala más allá del proyecto. Los mapas resultantes y la información integraron diferentes tipos de conocimiento de más de 450 accionistas y representaron >1000 años de experiencia colectiva. Los mapas proporcionaron una consistente fuente nacional de información sobre las áreas prioritarias de conservación de ríos y humedales y se han aplicado en 25 contextos de uso desde su creación. Cuando se enmarcan como un proceso de coproducción de conocimiento respaldado por el trabajo de frontera, los planes de conservación regional pueden transformarse en objetos valiosos que ofrecen una herramienta tangible para la cooperación multiagencia en la conservación. Nuestro trabajo proporciona una guía práctica para promover la comprensión de la ciencia de la conservación y contribuye a una base de evidencias de cómo se puede mejorar la conservación.
Free‐flowing rivers (FFRs) are important surrogates for freshwater biodiversity as there are increasingly fewer rivers that reflect intact habitat and species diversity from source to sea. The status ...and changes in the ecological condition or protection of FFRs is not explicitly reported on in global biodiversity targets. Indices are proposed for reporting such changes to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 6 and 15, Aichi Target 11, and the post‐2020 global biodiversity framework.
FFRs were identified at a countrywide scale in South Africa for protection, planning, monitoring, and assessing changes in their ecological condition and protection status. They were selected and prioritized using criteria co‐produced with national, provincial, and local river managers and policy makers. Given the high competition for water resources and the unlikely possibility for strictly protecting all FFRs, a subset of FFRs, termed ‘flagship FFRs’, was identified.
Methods for reporting changes in the protection levels of prioritized FFRs at a countrywide scale were developed, which included indices of FFRs related to global targets: the loss of the extent of FFRs in a natural and largely natural ecological condition for SDG 6; changes in the connectivity of FFRs included in the post‐2020 global biodiversity framework targets; and changes in protection levels of FFRs for Aichi Target 11 and SDG 15.1.2.
Flagship FFRs attracted targeted management initiatives and thus maintained their connectivity and ecological condition. This was not true when all FFRs were considered; in the broader set of FFRs, longitudinal fragmentation increased and ecological condition declined from 2011 to 2018.
Considering the increasing pressures rivers are likely to experience from human and climate change impacts, particularly in semi‐arid to temperate environments, urgent prioritization and monitoring of FFRs is called for so that a targeted set of protection and management strategies can be applied.
Knowledge co-production and boundary work offer planners a new frame for critically designing a social process that fosters collaborative implementation of resulting plans. Knowledge co-production ...involves stakeholders from diverse knowledge systems working iteratively toward common vision and action. Boundary work is a means of creating permeable knowledge boundaries that satisfy the needs of multiple social groups while guarding the functional integrity of contributing knowledge systems. Resulting products are boundary objects of mutual interest that maintain coherence across all knowledge boundaries. We examined how knowledge co-production and boundary work can bridge the gap between planning and implementation and promote cross-sectoral cooperation. We applied these concepts to well-established stages in regional conservation planning within a national scale conservation planning project aimed at identifying areas for conserving rivers and wetlands of South Africa and developing an institutional environment for promoting their conservation. Knowledge co-production occurred iteratively over 4 years in interactive stake-holder workshops that included co-development of national freshwater conservation goals and spatial data on freshwater biodiversity and local conservation feasibility; translation of goals into quantitative inputs that were used in Marxan to select draft priority conservation areas; review of draft priority areas; and packaging of resulting map products into an atlas and implementation manual to promote application of the priority area maps in 37 different decision-making contexts. Knowledge co-production stimulated dialogue and negotiation and built capacity for multi-scale implementation beyond the project. The resulting maps and information integrated diverse knowledge types of over 450 stakeholders and represented >1000 years of collective experience. The maps provided a consistent national source of information on priority conservation areas for rivers and wetlands and have been applied in 25 of the 37 use contexts since their launch just over 3 years ago. When framed as a knowledge co-production process supported by boundary work, regional conservation plans can be developed into valuable boundary objects that offer a tangible tool for multi-agency cooperation around conservation. Our work provides practical guidance for promoting uptake of conservation science and contributes to an evidence base on how conservation efforts can be improved. La Coproducción de Conocimiento y el Trabajo de Frontera para Promover la Implementación de los Planes de Conservación Resumen La coproducción de conocimiento y el trabajo de frontera le ofrecen a los planeadores un marco nuevo para diseñar críticamente un proceso social que fomente la implementación de los planes resultantes en colaboración. La coproducción de conocimiento involucra a accionistas de diversos sistemas de conocimiento trabajando repetidamente hacia una visión y acción común. El trabajo de frontera es un medio de creación de fronteras permeables de conocimiento que satisfacen las necesidades de múltiples grupos sociales mientras mantienen la integridad funcional de los sistemas de conocimiento contribuyentes. Los productos resultantes son objetos fronterizos de interés mutuo que mantienen la coherencia a lo largo de todas las fronteras del conocimiento. Examinamos cómo la coproducción de conocimiento y el trabajo de frontera pueden resolver el vacío entre la planeación y la implementación y promover la cooperación entre sectores. Aplicamos estos conceptos a las fases bien establecidas de la planeación de la conservación regional dentro de un proyecto de planeación de la conservación a escala nacional enfocado a la identificación de áreas para la conservación de ríos y humedales de Sudáfrica y al desarrollo de un ambiente institucional para promover su conservación. La coproducción de conocimiento apareció repetidamente a lo largo de cuatro años en talleres interactivos de trabajo para los accionistas, que incluyeron el co-desarrollo de objetivos de conservación del agua dulce nacional e información espacial sobre la biodiversidad de agua dulce y la viabilidad de la conservación local; la traducción de las metas a aportes cuantitativos que se usaron en Marxan para seleccionar áreas de conservación de proyectos prioritarios; la revisión de áreas de proyectos prioritarios; y el empaquetamiento de los productos cartográficos resultantes para promover la aplicación del mapa de área prioritaria resultante en 37 contextos de toma de decisiones. La coproducción de conocimiento estimuló el diálogo y la negociación y construyó la capacidad para la implementación multiescala más allá del proyecto. Los mapas resultantes y la información integraron diferentes tipos de conocimiento de más de 450 accionistas y representaron >1000 años de experiencia colectiva. Los mapas proporcionaron una consistente fuente nacional de información sobre las áreas prioritarias de conservación de ríos y humedales y se han aplicado en 25 contextos de uso desde su creación. Cuando se enmarcan como un proceso de coproducción de conocimiento respaldado por el trabajo de frontera, los planes de conservación regional pueden transformarse en objetos valiosos que ofrecen una herramienta tangible para la cooperación multiagencia en la conservación. Nuestro trabajo proporciona una guía práctica para promover la comprensión de la ciencia de la conservación y contribuye a una base de evidencias de cómo se puede mejorar la conservación.
Philosophiae Doctor - PhD
River systems are by nature complex and dynamic systems, which vary in structure and therefore function, and are closely connected to their landscapes. The primary aim of ...this thesis was to develop a systems operational understanding of how river patterns and processes (geomorphology and hydrology) link to aquatic and riparian systems and biodiversity (ecology) in a framework of evolving land cover/use and management. This illustrated the hydrogeomorphic controls regulating the structure and functioning of rivers in the provision of goods and services that vegetation, especially riparian vegetation, perform as ecological infrastructure, with a focus on the Duiwe River catchment.;
This study used a combination of desktop and field analysis. The desktop analysis followed the spatial and temporal historical land use change detection of river sub-catchments to assess the influence on water quality and river flow. It included historical water quality, flow records, rainfall data and aerial photograph time series analysis for trend detection, which were linked to changes in land use activities. The field surveys included cross-section surveys, physical and chemical sediment analysis, vegetation distribution, ground-water depth surveys and instream biological surveys of aquatic bioindicators.;
The study illustrated a correlation between land cover/use, water quality and river ecological integrity. When spatial heterogeneity of the catchments was altered by human or natural events, it was reflected by changes in the water quality. The linkages between the land cover/use and ecological integrity were examined using macroinvertebrates and algae. Macroinvertebrates were indicative of habitat integrity and river condition, while the benthic filamentous algae were indicative of increased nutrients and alkalinity. Results indicated that the full consortium of algae and macroinvertebrates be used as bioindicators for ecological integrity assessments in these short, coastal rivers.;
The influence of riparian vegetation and its effectiveness in providing regulating (retaining sediment and nutrients) and provisioning (good water quality for humans and the aquatic environment) services was examined by relating contrasting land uses, riparian vegetation, nutrient dynamics and water quality. The land covers generated different runoff volumes, water quality parameter concentrations and associated nutrient loads. Agriculture and alien Acacia mearnsii trees had the greatest impact on nutrient loads. However, a decreasing trend in nutrient concentrations was observed in the cross-section from the pastures to the riparian zones to the river at all sites.;
The key findings from this study were formulated into a conceptual framework flow-chain model demonstrating the linkages between river pattern, processes and ecology in the provision of ecosystem services. This interdisciplinary investigation demonstrated strong links between climate, topography, hydrogeomorphology, land cover/use, human activities and their influence on ecological river integrity. The developed framework provides a hierarchical model to link the different disciplines. It illustrates the top-down constraints provided by the system;
controllers and habitat drivers, coupled with the anthropogenic impacts as controllers to determine the response of biological entities (riparian vegetation and aquatic biota) at different scales, to ultimately provide ecosystem services. It provides the basis for an understanding of the linkages, processes and interactions that allows, prevents or alters ecosystem service provision by river ecosystems and in the study context, by riparian buffer zones.
