Developing knowledge-action systems for integrated water management in New Zealand

Abstract

The development of agricultural productivity and the management of water along sustainable ecological, economic and social trajectories require an integrated approach. Integrated water management is knowledge intensive across multiple scales. As New Zealand moves to set limits on water quantity and quality and respond to changing environmental values, both of which have implications for agricultural productivity, it has become apparent that the links between knowledge, policy and on-ground action are often missing. As a potential means of reconnecting these missing connections, this paper outlines the theory and practice of knowledge-action systems and their potential role in the coproduction of knowledge and policy across organisational, knowledge and institutional boundaries.