 | | | Introduction
The complexity of current water resource management poses
many challenges. Water managers need to solve a range of interrelated
water dilemmas, such as balancing water quantity and quality, flooding,
drought, maintaining biodiversity and ecological functions and
services, in a context where human beliefs, actions and values play a
central role. Furthermore, the growing uncertainties of global climate
change and the long term implications of management actions make the
problems even more difficult. NeWater addresses some of the present and
future challenges of water management. The project recognizes the value
of highly integrated solutions and advocates integrated water resource
management (IWRM) concepts. However, NeWater is based on the hypothesis
that IWRM cannot be realized unless current water management regimes
undergo a transition towards more adaptive water management.
NeWater Scientific Challenge
NeWater
identifies key elements of current water management regimes and
investigates their interdependence. Research is focused on
transformation processes of these elements in the transition to
adaptive integrated water resources management. Key IWRM areas where
NeWater is expected to deliver breakthrough results include:
- governance in water management (methods to arrive at polycentric, horizontal broad stakeholder participation in IWRM)
- sectoral
integration (integration of IWRM and spatial planning; integration with
climate change adaptation strategies, cross-sectoral optimisation and
cost-benefit analysis)
- scales of analysis in IWRM (methods to resolve water resource use conflicts; transboundary issues)
- information
management (multi stakeholder dialogue, multi-agent systems modelling;
novel monitoring systems for decision systems in water management)
- infrastructure
(innovative methods for river basin buffering capacity; role of storage
in adaptation to climate variability and climate extremes)
- finances
and risk mitigation strategies in water management (new instruments,
role of public-private arrangements in risk-sharing)
- stakeholder participation (promoting new ways of bridging science, policy and implementation)
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