A Social Innovation Framework for Water Demand Management Policy: Practitioners' Capabilities, Capacity, Collaboration, and Commitment

Water demand management (WDM) is reconceptualized within a social innovation framework. This social innovation framework encourages new opportunities and investigations about the social capital necessary for successful WDM. Influential elements include the knowledge held by WDM practitioners and the social networks in which they are embedded. These two elements have been neglected in conventional WDM policy and research. A reconceptualization of WDM requires changes in how we use decision makers' tacit knowledge and in how we support social networks for information exchange. It also suggests new ways to overcome implementation barriers in the area of resource management and to improve program sustainability.