Get ready for presentation

Subtask Description:
Organize meeting.

Action points of the implementation:

Meet with a test audience

Introduce them
Present your presentation to them
Improve your presentation with feedback.

Area:
Guadiana Estuary, Portugal (& Spain)

Policy Issue:
Management of the discharges of untreated wastewater into the estuarine environment

Human Activities:
Energy production, tourism, urban activity, agriculture and livestock farming, aquaculture.

General Information:
The estuary is the natural border between Portugal and Spain. On both sides of the estuary, especially in Spain, urban development is taking place, mainly associated with tourism and threatens to increase the inputs of pollutants, namely nutrients and bacteria. Nutrient input is expected to change, not only due to fertilizer application on golf courses, but also due to the river discharge from a large dam, which has accumulated nutrients during its filling. On the Portuguese side, the construction of a large-scale WWTP, designed to serve several urban areas, was successively delayed since it is located within a protected area. The main stakeholder concerns relate to asymmetric development strategies of the two countries and the impact of activities taking place in the watershed on the estuarine and coastal water quality, which has consequences on tourism attractiveness, fisheries, or traditional salt farming.

Example of Implementation:
The meeting with a peer group in Guadiana Estuary took place 3 months prior to the Consultation and Analysis process. The objective was to make a presentation test-run with a group of colleagues from CIMA.
Their presence was assured by convening the presentation in the CIMA Advanced Seminars, a weekly internal science communication meeting. The audience was composed by several researchers from different fields, namely ecology, microbiology and geomorphology.
The presentation format was roughly close to the one foreseen to be used in the Consultation and Analysis process. The pre-conceived presentation template was one of the most successful aspects, with its organizational structure being clear enough to allow a good understanding of the work developed during the SAF implementation.
However, one aspect that became visible was the overall simplification of the model. By the end of the presentation, some of the participants questioned the feasibility of the model constructed on assumptions omitting collateral natural processes.
The final presentation included some organizational and visualization changes. For the first time it was stressed the need to adapt the ExtendSim® charts to a more readable format, namely Excel® charts. The length of the presentation was also reduced and its contents were more incisively systematized. Also, the ICZM concept was not a part of the peer group presentation, for the audience was well acquainted with it.

Contact: Maria Helena Guimarães, mguimaraes@ualg.pt.