KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE: ENGAGING STAKEHOLDERS IN COMPLEX GROUND-WATER ISSUES

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) interacts with federal, state, or county cooperating agencies, and interested or concerned stakeholders, often with these groups having conflicting interests. To streamline the completion of complex projects, a series of meetings (knowledge exchanges) for some projects were instituted with interested parties convening on a regular basis. While a common practice in the business world, this tactic has not been a common practice in the USGS.

Knowledge exchange routinely addresses data that define the “what”, “where”, and “when” of a system, as well as the knowledge that is gained from the application or interpretation of these data. The knowledge exchange process can improve communication between USGS staff, cooperators, and stakeholders, and resolve potential conflict. Meetings were designed to be interactive, working meetings dealing with technical issues and aspects. Updates were presented, technical work was critiqued, and technical problems were solved during these meetings. In this way, multiple hypotheses and alternative scenarios with all interested parties were considered in real time, as work progressed. The continuous communication and review process afforded through these knowledge exchange meetings ultimately expedited the conclusion of a project.

Water use in the arid Southwest often is contentious and potentially may generate conflict between various user groups. Knowledge exchange meetings were applied as part of the Death Valley regional ground-water flow system modeling efforts completed by the USGS developing a transient ground-water flow model of southern Nevada and eastern California. Involving the cooperators and stakeholders in a technical capacity in the work constituted a “pre-review”, with a number of stakeholder concerns addressed and "what if" scenarios run prior to completion of model and final report. This resulted in a product (a ground-water flow model) that was useful to a wide variety of interests in the region, as well as a comprehensive report that was published on time, available to the cooperators who paid for the work, the stakeholders who are interested in using the work for their own needs, and the general public.