Perceptions of Government and Research Expert Groups and Their Implications for Watershed Management in Oklahoma, USA

The collaborative approach for sustainable management of watersheds is built on engagement of diverse stakeholders. Climate variability and anthropogenic activities increasingly impose challenges to successful management, as do contrasts in stakeholder perceptions about those processes. To assess differences in perceptions about watershed issues, we conducted a focus group meeting of expert stakeholder groups from research institutions, and state and federal agencies in the management of Cimarron River Watershed, Oklahoma. We employed the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOTs) approach to identify important issues, and the analytic hierarchy process to rank the perceptions of these groups. We found incongruity between these two groups over internal factors (SW) and external factors (OT) risking sustainable watershed management. External threats such as climate change dominated the research group perceptions, whereas internally prevalent weaknesses such as inability to track water use and lack of a common platform to share scientific data, dominated the government group perceptions. Despite these differences, both groups identified the negative aspect (W + T) as dominant over the positive aspect (S + O), which suggests a pessimistic watershed management future, with risks prevailing over the opportunities. We see this particular congruity of these two stakeholders as an opportunity to initiate a collaborative approach to watershed management in Oklahoma. We also note that the most important factor from each group corresponds to a relatively modest importance from the other group, and therefore suggests the possibility of cooperation rather than conflict in management goals should collaborative watershed management become established in the watershed.