Communicating about sustainable urban water management: community and professional perspectives on water-related terminology

ABSTRACT

As approaches to water management begin to encompass broader social and environmental goals, new technical terms have entered the field of water management. Effective communication across professional disciplines, and with community stakeholders, is essential for sustainable urban water management. However, use of technical terminology has the potential to undermine effectiveness of communication. We surveyed professionals and community members to examine these issues. Findings indicate that water-related technical terms may not be well understood by the community. Professionals most likely to overestimate community understanding were influenced by their own understanding rather than experience with communities. For communities, individuals with poor topic knowledge or low education were less likely to seek information about terms, highlighting the importance of reducing reliance on technical terms when collaborating with diverse stakeholders.

KEYWORDS:

• Communication
• community engagement
• information seeking
• jargon
• technical terminology
• socio-technical systems

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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Funding

This research was funded by the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities, Commonwealth of Australia.