Technologies of Consciousness for Human-centred Water Resources Management

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Innovation, Professor Lynn Morris, cordially invites you to the Inaugural Lecture of Professor John Ndiritu

John Ndiritu is a Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment and a Fellow of the Water Institute of Southern Africa.

The title of his talk is Technologies of Consciousness for Human-centred Water Resources Management

Achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs) of UN Agenda 2030 relating to water calls for more human-centred water resources management that involves all stakeholders. Human-water dynamics have been studied and applied in water resource decision-making for decades and sociohydrology has been recently conceived to refine this further. While sociohydrology incorporates the dynamic change of human behaviour in response to changes in water systems, there has been no consideration of the potential of the psychological practices that enhance resilience and decision-making abilities. Mindfulness and other contemplative practices are widely applied as enablers of inner coherence and resilience in educational, health care, political, public policy, and other settings. Published research on these techniques has also increased exponentially in the last two decades and there is evidence that they could be applied to enhance crop yield significantly. How applicable are these contemplative techniques towards meeting water-related SDGs?

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