This paper focuses on the role of popular education in integrated water management. It outlines three lessons gained from practice. Education is one of a range of tools that water resources managers can use to improve the sustainability of ways people interact with water, waterways, catchments and coastal zones. Over the last thirty years, many different tools have been used in an effort to improve the sustainability of water management, including legislation and regulation, market-based instruments, marketing and communication programs, and improved technology and end-of-pipe solutions. Governments have introduced environmental management legislation (e.g., Queensland Government 1994; Queensland Government 2000). Economists have advocated innovative ways of valuing our ecosystems and the services they provide us (e.g., Costanza et al. 1987). Marketing and communication experts have communicated messages tailored to specific audiences (e.g., Kennedy 2010). Researchers have discovered more about the actual nature of water problems and opportunities that confront us and how best to manage them (e.g., eWater Cooperative Research Centre 2012). While each of these groups of tools undoubtedly plays a part in sustainable water management, it has been the experience of the authors and others (e.g., Cosgrove, Evans, and Yancken 1994) that a thoughtfully developed, context-specific mix of tools is necessary, if water management is to be improved in any given situation.So education, while not the answer, is definitely part of the answer.
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