"Knowing Water: How to Communicate its Value" with Megan Dixon, Ph.D.

The talk will lay out a project to study communication about water under conditions of intensifying urbanization and increasing climate destabilization. How can public awareness be leveraged to gain support for adapting the water system to climate destabilization?

I explore the most productive water topics in several years of annual talks on the irrigation system to a local group of master naturalists, and in three iterations of a college course titled “Knowing Water.” To date, the most persuasive “stories” of water included analysis of human dependence on irrigation, the contrast between rivers’ natural flow regime and canal flow, and Indigenous perspectives on water as a living being.

About the speaker:
Megan Dixon has taught at The College of Idaho since 2008, offering a range of courses for the Environmental Studies department such as Human Geography, Working Landscapes, and Making Maps. In fall 2022 she introduced a new course titled Knowing Water. Her current research project is an effort to understand the best “stories” to tell to an audience in order to generate interest in and care about water and water policy.