WWP spray diagram animated tutorial

This spray diagram contains text, shapes and arrows. In this description the term “label” refers to text in the diagram, and the term “phrase” refers to text in the audio description or transcript.

Page	Transcript	Description	
Page 1	In spray diagramming choosing your central theme is important. ‘Competing needs for water’ seemed like a particularly important topic to structure my understanding of the WWP from the summary. Once I’d chosen my central theme, I circled it.
	Briefly, the completed spray diagram is shown. This will be described in more detail in this description.

The central label ‘competing needs for water’ is highlighted in the completed diagram as the rest of the diagram disappears.
A circle appears around the label. This will now be known as the central label.	
Page 2
	Constructing a spray diagram helps you understand the central theme in a systemic way. On reading about the South African WWP experience, three sub-themes of sustainability came to mind in relation to water conflicts. These were; the economic dimensions, the social and political dimensions, and the ecological dimensions.
	Three labels (sub-themes) appear around the central label. At the phrase “the economic dimensions”, the label “water for economic development” is highlighted. At the phrase “the social and political dimensions”, the new label “socio-political dimensions of water needs” is highlighted. At the phrase “the ecological dimensions”, the new label “ecological dimensions”.	
Page 3
	It’s often useful to keep track of your main sub-themes by putting a circle around them. Focusing on each of the three sub-themes in turn, more spray effects were made by creating primary branches of each theme. The associations you make can be of different types. These could be influences, causes, or any other type of relationship or link that you think appropriate. It might be useful to include short quotations from the text or argument being analysed.

After creating the primary or direct branches from each sub-theme, I decided to branch out further to form secondary sub-branches, and further still forming sub-sub branches.

There is of course a risk of continuing too far with the spraying effect. The idea is to continue until further branching into more specific areas is no longer useful for your purposes.
	Circles appear around the three sub-themes. Three lines (branches) appear from the central label to the three sub-themes. 

During the description, text labels near the sub-themes appear along with lines linking these ‘sub-branches’ to the sub-theme circles.

From the sub-theme “water for economic development” there are five sub-branch labels linked to the sub-theme with lines; “water charges”, “addressing inefficiencies”, “rural employment opportunities”, “production of saleable goods” and “urban and industrial centres”.

From the sub-theme “ecological dimensions” there are two sub-branches: “thirsty invasive plants” and “native ecosystems”. From the sub-branch “thirsty invasive plants” there are two sub-sub-branches: “economically useful” and “ecological damaging”. From the sub-branch “native ecosystems” there are two sub-sub-branches: “biodiversity and growth” and “prevention of fires”.

From the sub-theme “socio-political dimensions of water needs”, there are three sub-branches: “water for all”, “national water strategy” and “people”. From the sub-branch “people” there are two sub-sub-branches: “end of apartheid” and “basic needs reserve”. From the sub-sub-branch “basic needs reserve” there are three sub-sub-sub-branches: “drinking”, “food preparation” and “hygiene”.	
Page 4	Some of the elements of one branch might relate specifically to elements of another branch. For example, the invasive species, whilst being ecologically damaging, are also economically useful and this clearly relates to water for economic development.

Similarly, the generation of employment opportunities is related to the economic and socio-political dimensions of water. I’ve only made links between elements from different branches where I consider them to be important. Too many cross linkages will result in a diagram that lacks clarity.
	At the phrases “ecologically damaging” and “economically useful” these respective labels are highlighted on the diagram. At the phrase “this clearly relates to…” a line appears between the label “economically useful” and the sub-theme “water for economic development”. 

At the phrase “the generation of employment opportunities” the label “rural employment opportunities” is highlighted. A line appears between this phrase and the sub-theme “the economic and socio-political dimensions of water” when the phrase is spoken, and the sub theme is highlighted. 	
Page 5
	Its crucially important that the headings are all inter-connected through the common theme of 'competing needs for water'. So, looking at this diagram, the WWP does not view the cutting down of invasive species as the sole solution to the original problem. The programme’s response to the ecological damage appears to be quite systemic. It addresses the various economic, ecological and political dimensions of water needs together.
	All previous highlights are removed. 
At the phrase “competing needs for water”, the central label is highlighted.

At the phrase “the cutting down of invasive species”, the label “thirsty invasive species” and its sub-branch “ecologically damaging” are highlighted. 

At the phrase “the various economic, ecological and political dimensions of water”, the three sub-themes are highlighted.	
Page 6
	Looking at the final diagram, if you had to describe WWP to someone unfamiliar with the programme what structural features would you emphasise? Which structural features aren’t represented well enough on the diagram? How might you improve it?
	All previous highlights are removed. The final diagram is displayed. 	
Summary	Start with a key idea and circle it.

Identify the sub-topics that are directly related to the central topic.

Circle the key sub-topics and link them to the main topic with lines.

Identify issues related to the sub-topics and link them with the sub-topic with lines.

Build up the sub-branches as far as you think is useful.