UDTR Global Rights of Nature Radar

Shifting formal education toward hydrosocial and hydrorelational learning

Identification

Public canonical key

doi:10.1371/journal.pwat.0000218

Authors

Dena W. McMartin · Alison Jodie Sammel · Lisa M. Watson

Reported year

2024

Reported language

en

Source type

article

First detected

2026-11-09T19:09:16.190122+00:00

Last metadata observation

2026-11-09T19:19:42.939023+00:00

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Not checked

Institutions reported by the source

Athabasca University · Griffith University · University of Lethbridge

Documentary abstract — original language

The way that freshwater is accessed, used, consumed, and managed in highly industrialized countries demonstrates our lack of value or respect of water.Consider the adage, "show me your budget and I'll tell you your priorities" and put it in terms of freshwater: show me how you use water and I'll tell you how you value it.Show me where and how freshwater is incorporated into your formal education curriculum, and I'll show you how your society respects freshwater.Understanding and managing water resources is a social responsibility and activity.However, many societies view water as political power, an economic tool, an engineering exercise.Most peer-reviewed research speaks to water from a scientific perspective, placing humans either outside the problem or as the primary beneficiaries or deterrents of the outcomes [1].We argue that water research and understandings come from interconnections and should be analyzed through the lens of relationships rather than in selected isolation.Interpretations of data must include a holistic approach, incorporating humans, rather than having humans viewed as a consumer or manipulator of nature and natural resources.The necessity of bringing to bear the benefits of multidisciplinary critical thinking and problem solving is clear in terms of identifying meaningful and successful approaches to informing societies about the intersecting and interconnected complexities of changing climate, extreme weather events like floods and droughts, and equitable water use and resource management.However, Western approaches to water are human-centric, resource-based approaches that do not consider or forefront ecological needs, functions, and benefits.At a minimum, Western cultures must shift language in science and educational systems from the perfunctory hydrologic cycle (scientific) or hydrosocial (human-centric) view of water to an interconnectedness model described as either a broader hydrorelational approach to valuing freshwater resources requires that formal water science pedagogies are fully integrated with social science and humanities education [1-3].Both hydrologic and hydrosocial frameworks-and distinctions between the two-have become relatively common in the scientific and social sciences literature [4][5][6][7].The hydrologic framework is well established and accepted for both formal education and scientific purposes.It's familiar and comfortable, placing water as-independent from and of social systems.It's readily understandable, focusing on scientific and geographical facts about water, including rote presentations of chemical properties, meteorological processes, physical state changes, and the existence of groundwater.Hydrosocial perspectives enable us to move toward viewing our perceptions and relationships with water as emergent from social-ecological frameworks [1,8].In a hydrosocial

Identifiers

OPENALEX

W4390971088

DOI

10.1371/journal.pwat.0000218

Documentary context

Documentary family

Scholarship

Source-reported types

article

Entity mentions are not evidence of legal recognition. Jurisdiction studied is separate from author affiliation country.

Sources

OpenAlex · Record 1 · Record 2

• DOI · https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat.0000218
• OpenAlex · https://openalex.org/W4390971088

Documented bibliographic relations

Source-declared references and links; they do not establish legal support or UGLC qualification. Up to 20 outgoing references are displayed.

• openalex:w1863278106 · CITES
• openalex:w2026076326 · CITES
• openalex:w2799338388 · CITES
• openalex:w2885241522 · CITES
• openalex:w2967976306 · CITES
• openalex:w2980268482 · CITES
• openalex:w2993993603 · CITES
• openalex:w3203300303 · CITES
• openalex:w4229049902 · CITES
• Environmental Personhood as a Landscape Planning Tool · CITES

0 incoming references within the detected corpus

Documentary status

Relevance pending

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