Facilitation of interdisciplinary collaboration in research:: lessons from a Kruger National Park Rivers Research Programme project

Recent shifts in natural resources management have highlighted the need for an integrated approach that draws upon the expertise of scientists in different disciplines. However, it has been said that effective interdisciplinary collaboration is one of science's missing links. This issue is of importance to many projects, which are increasingly dependent upon successful interaction of scientists from several disciplines. A project, which formed part of the Kruger National Park Rivers Research Programme, focused on linking changes in catchment hydrology, sedimentation and geomorphology to the responses of the fish and riparian vegetation of the Sable River through the development of simulation models. The completion of this project was dependent on successful interdisciplinary collaboration between an hydrologist, an engineer, a botanist, an ecologist and a geomorphologist, all of whom were based at different institutions and separated by wide geographical distances. In this paper, we describe the potential obstacles that may affect similar interdisciplinary projects and the extent to which these affected, and were resolved in, the Kruger Park project.