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The issue: handling 'driven' research effectively
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Basically, the two extremes in the spectrum of research drivers are curiosity and practical demand, leading to ‘free’ and ‘applied’ research, respectively. 'Free’ research operates outside the constraints of a practical problem and usually has no clearly identified end users. 'Applied’ research is end user oriented and focuses on quick, efficient and economical solutions to practical problems. In between these extremes, both practical and scientific interests drive the research in some form. For this reason Van Koningsveld et al. (2003) characterised this type of research as 'driven'.
In many hydraulic engineering research projects of this intermediate type, the balance tends to be tilted towards the 'free' end of the spectrum. In the course of such projects, the aforementioned natural difference in attitude between researchers and end users tends to yield research results that are scientifically interesting, but hard or even impossible to use in practice. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as the 'gap' between science and practice.
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The CoastView, Conscience, Micore and Building with Nature projects are examples of 'driven' research projects. Proper handling such research context requires three basic skills:
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As a matter of example the Frame of Reference for the Dynamic Preservation policy is presented below:
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The
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The challenge: utilize the frame of reference within 'driven' research settings
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Applying the same approach to various problems promotes comparability of the results. Previous applications in the CoastView and Conscience projects have shown that the method actually works and produces useful results. For the CoastView project the final results were described and compared in Van Koningsveld et al. (2007), for the Conscience project in Marchand (2010). For the MICORE project the same was done and published in Ciavola et al. (2011a and 2011b). To further facilitate the practical use of the Frame of Reference a useful template has been developed in the context of the Building with Nature project. Using this template enables convenient summarizing and reuse of the information produced.