ABSTRACT

In the context of global environmental changes, water scarcity has become a challenge, especially for rapidly urbanizing regions. Water conservation—demand management—has therefore become an important tool for managing water resources. Since communication is at the core of water conservation strategies, we use Twitter data to trace the construction process of a widespread discourse at the global scale. We conduct a quantitative textual analysis of the Water-Use It Wisely Twitter timeline dedicated to promoting water conservation in Arizona. Based on the text of 3500 tweets and profile descriptions of 15,204 related Twitter accounts, our results show that Twitter is used to convey a standardized water conservation message that finds an audience worldwide, even though some countries block the use of Twitter or use other technical tools. This communication aspect on social media, where a network of water professionals and a community of water activists can interact, works as a cornerstone in the construction of an institutional consensus around this new paradigm of water management.

摘要

在全球环境变化的背景下，水资源短缺已成为一项挑战，特别是对于快速城市化的地区。因此，节水（需求管理）已成为管理水资源的重要工具。由于沟通是节水策略的核心，因此我们使用Twitter数据来追踪全球范围内广泛讨论的构建过程。我们对Water-Use It Wisely Twitter时间轴进行了定量的文本分析，该时间轴专门用于促进亚利桑那州的节水工作。根据3500条推文的文本和15,204个相关Twitter帐户的个人资料描述，我们的结果表明，即使某些国家禁止使用Twitter或使用其他技术工具，Twitter仍可用来传达标准化的节水信息，从而在全球范围内找到受众。