Case Studies to Connect Disciplines for Water Management Education

The discipline of water management offers important tools for solving important human and environmental problems, but its many diverse scenarios defy classification and lead to abstract treatment of problem types by different disciplines. The resulting generalized approaches to education may seem detached from reality or to lack academic rigor. Case studies offer a bridge between abstraction and specific approaches by providing context to the discussion of management principles. Changes in the use of case studies for water management education over the last two decades are reviewed to show how they address multiple scales and issues. Although cases are proliferating, their diversity and lack of standards inhibit their use for instruction in water management, which is itself a scattered discipline without consensus standards. Many cases are simply descriptions of dilemmas, situations, and ongoing projects of interest to the case writers. Most sources are not impartial but advocate specific agendas. Notwithstanding this situation, the cases offer rich stories about water management scenarios and lessons learned, and even imperfect cases can add life and experience to education and training. To facilitate their use, cases can be classified by variables such as scale and purposes addressed, but these classifiers are likely to be less useful than problem type itself. Steps to improve the use of cases in water management education and training include classifying them and creating problem archetypes for management education and possible further use within disciplines. Above all, the problem-centered approach offers hope that consensus about the long-sought paradigm of integrated water resources management might be facilitated.