Social perception and prioritization data for integrated big-picture science of water environmental change and sustainability

Water is both a key resource and a source of risks for society. Societal risks are posed, for example, by waterborne pollutant spreading with related water and environmental quality impacts and by weather extremes of floods and droughts. In its continuous movement through the landscape, the flowing water links the world's hydrological systems with the human-social systems that use the water and interact with it. The interactions are social-hydrological and imply important water resource and risk impacts and feedbacks. However, research has not yet comprehensively, in integrated quantitative and qualitative ways, studied the social-hydrological system coupling and the roles it plays for sustainable development across various world regions with different climate, societal and environmental conditions. This presentation outlines some key needs and linkage pathways for qualitative social perception and prioritization data along with quantitative data and modeling toward such research integration and big-picture science for the world's water system on land, its social-hydrological interactions, and the roles they play for local to global sustainability.