Interdisciplinary workshop explores new perspectives on water quality
Annabelle Dawson reports on a University of Leeds workshop exploring how social and environmental perspectives can shape water quality research.
On 11-12 May, an interdisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Leeds held the workshop "Defining Water Quality: A Social-Environmental Dialogue" at Weetwood Hall. The workshop – organised by Prof. Laura Carter (School of Geography), Dr Gabriela Lopez (School of Geography) and Dr Markus Fraundorfer (School of Politics and International Studies) – sought to foster collaboration and research partnerships in the context of the ongoing faculty alignment by bringing into dialogue social and environmental perspectives on water quality.
The workshop brought together 17 researchers with diverse backgrounds and research interests from across the Faculty of Social Sciences and Faculty of Environment, including senior academics, early career researchers and PhD candidates. Each participant presented their work and its intersection with water quality in a series of lightning talks on the first day.
The presentations showcased the breadth of expertise within the group, with issues discussed ranging from emerging contaminants and waste reuse to flood disaster framings in Ghana, sanitation in India, river rights in Brazil, the cultural heritage of wetlands, and feminist and decolonial understandings of water, among many others.
Building on groundwork laid in two online meetings, participants then engaged in discussions around key questions related to how prevailing definitions of and approaches to water quality intersect with socio-political context and issues of power, governance, knowledge and culture. Emerging insights were visually captured and synthesised by live illustrator Vicky Hughes, who sat in on the day’s discussions.
Defining water quality live illustration by Vicky Hughes
The workshop highlighted the complexity of the issue of water quality and the added value of taking an interdisciplinary approach which offers a route towards more holistic understandings of water quality as a multidimensional global challenge.
The workshop was part of the research project "Defining Water Quality: A Social-Environmental Dialogue", one of the 10 pump-priming projects in the context of academic alignment. The project responds to the shortage of critical social science and humanities perspectives on water quality, a field largely dominated by the natural and life sciences.
The sidelining of social perspectives has contributed to the prominence of narrow, technical understandings of water quality in policy discourse, which in turn hinders effective and sustainable water governance. By fostering collaboration between environmental and social scientists, the project aims to deepen mutual understanding of water quality as a multifaceted issue and identify opportunities for more integrated and inclusive water governance.
Project outcomes will include a mapping of relevant expertise across the Faculty, strengthened relationships between researchers working on water quality across disciplines, and a co-developed synthesis paper. This paper will harness participants' interdisciplinary perspectives to outline the shortcomings of dominant definitions of water quality in policy discourse.
The paper will provide a timely response to recent regulatory developments, notably the EU Directive 2026/805, which entered into force in May 2026, and the UK government's white paper, 'A new vision for water', which sets out the British government's plans to reform the water sector.
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