Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA.
Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA.
Environ Manage. 2018 Dec;62(6):1048-1059. doi: 10.1007/s00267-018-1108-4. Epub 2018 Sep 21.
The collaborative approach for sustainable management of watersheds is built on engagement of diverse stakeholders. Climate variability and anthropogenic activities increasingly impose challenges to successful management, as do contrasts in stakeholder perceptions about those processes. To assess differences in perceptions about watershed issues, we conducted a focus group meeting of expert stakeholder groups from research institutions, and state and federal agencies in the management of Cimarron River Watershed, Oklahoma. We employed the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOTs) approach to identify important issues, and the analytic hierarchy process to rank the perceptions of these groups. We found incongruity between these two groups over internal factors (SW) and external factors (OT) risking sustainable watershed management. External threats such as climate change dominated the research group perceptions, whereas internally prevalent weaknesses such as inability to track water use and lack of a common platform to share scientific data, dominated the government group perceptions. Despite these differences, both groups identified the negative aspect (W + T) as dominant over the positive aspect (S + O), which suggests a pessimistic watershed management future, with risks prevailing over the opportunities. We see this particular congruity of these two stakeholders as an opportunity to initiate a collaborative approach to watershed management in Oklahoma. We also note that the most important factor from each group corresponds to a relatively modest importance from the other group, and therefore suggests the possibility of cooperation rather than conflict in management goals should collaborative watershed management become established in the watershed.
流域可持续管理的协作方法建立在多元化利益相关者的参与基础上。气候变异性和人为活动日益对成功管理构成挑战，利益相关者对这些过程的看法也存在差异。为了评估对流域问题的看法差异，我们在俄克拉荷马州 Cimarron 河流域管理方面，召集了来自研究机构、州和联邦机构的专家利益相关者小组进行了一次焦点小组会议。我们采用优势、劣势、机会和威胁 (SWOTs) 方法来确定重要问题，并采用层次分析法对这些群体的看法进行排名。我们发现，这两个群体在内部因素 (SW) 和外部因素 (OT) 上存在不一致，这可能会对可持续流域管理造成风险。气候变化等外部威胁主导了研究小组的看法，而政府小组的看法则普遍存在内部弱点，例如无法跟踪用水量和缺乏共享科学数据的共同平台。尽管存在这些差异，但这两个群体都认为负面方面（W+T）比正面方面（S+O）更为突出，这表明流域管理的未来前景悲观，风险超过机会。我们认为，这两个利益相关者的这种一致性是在俄克拉荷马州启动流域管理协作方法的机会。我们还注意到，每个群体最重要的因素对应于另一个群体相对较小的重要性，因此，如果协作性流域管理在流域中得以建立，那么管理目标就有可能进行合作而不是冲突。
