Transcending Boundaries

Transboundary collaborations related to international freshwater resources play an integral role in society as they establish collaboration and shared access to our planet’s most fundamental resources. Use of maps, diagrams, and other visual elements, classified as boundary objects, are used in resulting management documents to convey understandings and allow discussion about challenges and opportunities from multiple perspectives. Despite their ubiquitous presence in transboundary water management documents and potential for improving decision-making and stakeholder inclusion, research-informed guidelines for selecting and using boundary objects do not yet exist. This Pursuit will address this gap through a transdisciplinary synthesis study of boundary objects used in an internationally diverse sample of these agreements.