Towards the transdisciplinary engineer: Incorporating ecology, equity and democracy concerns into water professionals' attitudes, skills and knowledge

This paper uses emerging frameworks for transdisciplinary research on natural resources management as a model for defining the attitudes and skills of water professionals able to address the present‐day challenges to the agricultural water sector. These challenges can be generically classified as: (a) internalising ecological concerns into water systems design, management and governance; (b) shaping the co‐evolution of the water technological/infrastructural system and the water social system from a human development perspective; and (c) constructive involvement of the water‐control‐systems‐associated interest groups in the design, management and governance of these systems. In terms of “attitude”, transdisciplinary water engineers will have to be explicitly (i.e. self‐consciously) normative, as negotiated problem definition and problem solving is a core component of the new professionalism. The (new) “skills” required involve (a) conceptual skills to conceive and operationalise the multidimensionality of water control, (b) instrumental skills to shape water systems as boundary objects for different uses and users, and (c) behavioural and institutional design skills to engage in and shape processes of negotiated design, management and governance. In the process, the water resources engineering and hydrology knowledge and methods that constitute professional identity at present will have to be creatively rethought.