An article by Kelly Mott Lacroix, WRRC Sr. Research Analyst, and Sharon B. Megdal, WRRC Director, "Explore, Synthesize, and Repeat: Unraveling Complex Water Management Issues through the Stakeholder Engagement Wheel", has been published in a Special Issue of the on-line journal Water. This special issue, "Water Governance, Stakeholder Engagement, and Sustainable Water Resources Management," focuses on the relationship of water governance practices and stakeholder engagement approaches to the development, evaluation, and adoption of solutions to water management challenges. 

This publication presents the concept of a stakeholder engagement wheel that contains the four cyclical steps of engagement that drive collaborative water planning forward: problem statement and goal, activities and additional stakeholders, development of actions to address problem, and implementation of actions (projects/plans). The Stakeholder Engagement Wheel circles around a bridging organization that keeps the process moving and a steering committee that guides activities as stakeholder interests and concerns emerge and evolve. The four steps around this central guidance are designed to examine iteratively these interests and concerns and expand stakeholder involvement. Cycling through activities and actions, as proposed in the Stakeholder Engagement Wheel, builds the nuanced and shared understanding needed for cohesive action and robust decisions in the face our considerable challenges.

 Please read the complete article here