Towards hydrocitizenship. Connecting communities with and through responses to interdependent, multiple water issues

We aim to investigate and develop what we are calling hydrocitizenship:- the extent to which hydrocitizenship is emerging in local areas and how it can be enhanced by arts and humanities centred interdisciplinary research (AHIR) conducted with community groups. Hydrocitizenship implies an awareness of, and responsibility for, water as a vital social and environmental resource at both the individual (citizen) and community level. Being a 'hydrocitizen' means recognizing the complex and interconnected nature of water issues in modern society; that choices and conflicts arise from the differing demands we put on water resources; and that climate change presents added sets of challenges to future water resilience. We seek to move beyond single issue foci of water (e.g. flooding, drought, water supply security, waste disposal security, water related biodiversity, water as amenity and cultural asset) to a more holistic approach which sees these issues as interdependent and operating in catchment and engineered systems which connect communities in numerous way (upstream, downstream, across the rural urban divide, across local and even national legislative boundaries). At the same time as addressing these water-community issues we will ask a series of questions about what (local) communities are (networks/place based); how they are formed/practiced 'internally'; how they are connected to other communities around them, and if, through thinking about environmental (water) based resources communities inevitably share (and are sometimes in conflict over), we can contribute to community and environmental resilience in interconnected ways.