This session is organised by the Working Group "Transdisciplinarity" of IAHS' scientific decade on change in hydrology and society "Panta Rhei".

See recent paper by this Working Group 'A transdisciplinary account of water research', Krueger et al. WIREs Water 2016. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1132
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wat2.1132/full

A scientific decade on change in hydrology and society requires the perspectives of those disciplines that have traditionally been concerned with society, the social sciences, as well as of society itself. Understanding how these perspectives can be combined with hydrological perspectives to create new ways of approaching socio-hydrological questions is the aim of this session. Contributions are invited, but are not limited, to the following themes:

• Hydrology as practiced within society: Scientists are not removed from the things they study as science is practiced within cultural, political and economic boundaries, and is a product of a specific historical path. How has hydrology been shaped by the historical interplay of these social factors? How does hydrological knowledge mix again with cultural, political and economic discourses as it is applied in water resources management arenas? What are the opportunities and constraints that this science/society co-evolution creates for producing scientific knowledge?
• Interdisciplinary collaborations: Recent decades have mandated a more reflexive approach to science, as well as an interdisciplinary collaboration that accounts not only for the physical processes of water systems, but also the interaction between physical and societal components of these systems. What are the points of critique of traditional scientific method? How can individual disciplinary perspectives come together in interdisciplinary experiments?
• Society co-production of knowledge and policy: Water has meaning to more than those who are scientists. The process of knowledge co-production between scientists, stakeholders and the public can lead to the evolution of a shared and holistic understanding of the socio-hydrological system. By including a multitude of views and understandings through a representative process, the legitimacy of the created knowledge and the management decisions based upon it can be raised. Yet, knowledge can also be included or excluded from decision making processes to fit individual or institutional agendas. How can society interact with science to explicitly co-produce socio-hydrological knowledge? What is the value of such processes for water resources management? Which factors affect knowledge inclusion?

Authors are advised that, instead of a small number of 15-minute talks, we aim for maximum discussion and exchange through a series of mini-talks plus posters by all presenters. All authors will have the opportunity to deliver a short summary presentation of their work, which will be followed by extensive discussion.