*3.4. Training, Engaging and Communicating*

Lastly, significant advances in rethinking the way decisions are made (from the strategic to the operational) are expected. These changes in decision-making will be catalyzed through technologies that allow for more immersive and playful experiences of the decision landscape, such as Serious Games coupled with AR and VR (or mixed reality) applications and environments. The disruptive potential of such a technology shift cannot be overstated, potentially influencing everything, from immersive scenarios planning, including crisis managemen<sup>t</sup> training, to pipe rehabilitation, innovation uptake and water education. This last point brings us, however, face to face with an important challenge: What is the form of education and indeed the skillsets required by new hydroinformaticians to be able to benefit from, engage with and ultimately help evolve this dynamic field? Popescu et al. [114] have already correctly identified this challenge some time ago, when they suggested that hydroinformaticians need to master a subject matter that is *"increasing far more rapidly than the ability of engineering curricula to cover it"*. Indeed, as if water science was not demanding enough, the domain experts also need to be fluent in data science (from statistics to machine learning) and computer science (from information theory to hands-on software development and user interfaces design). They also need to engage with topics ranging from decision theory to social science to ethics and philosophy of science. Popescu et al. [114] argued that flexibility is key here, delivered through modular design and blended forms of learning with face to face courses supplemented with online courses allowing participants to invest in deepening their knowledge in diverse areas in a more customized pace. Clearly these requirements point towards hydroinformatics as a postgraduate rather than an undergraduate course. Actually, Abbott et al., [115] used the term participant rather than student explicitly to highlight a prerequisite of solid undergraduate education in relevant fields and indeed hands-on experience before embarking in such a multi-disciplinary course. They also persuasively argued that the educational challenge posed even after this prerequisite is met, suggests another important subject for future hydroinformatics research, that is, research into the educational and training aspects of the domain. In that context, hydroinformatics may benefit from the emergence of the more immersive and playful approaches and technologies discussed above, not the least due to the active (experiential) engagemen<sup>t</sup> (in view, for example, of rapid developments of natural user interfaces [116]) and hazard-free, learning by doing aspects that these approaches a fford. This promise, however, implies an important, additional and often neglected prerequisite: As Richert et al. [117] would argue tomorrow's hydroinformatics academics need themselves the technological competencies to allow them to both design and create these immersive environments and the training in digital coaching and joint problem solving in virtual worlds to be able to use them in meaningful and educationally productive ways. It is suggested that this prerequisite can only be delivered through new multidisciplinary forms of collaboration around education per se, both within universities and between universities and research centres and technology providers for an interesting example of emerging forms of multi disciplinarity in education see for example: [118].
