Participatory and Integrated Water Resources Planning

Abstract

The course develops basic knowledge and skills for modelling, planning and managing water resources systems in a balanced and sustainable way. The emphasis will be on the operational aspects of water management, including: introduction to participatory decision-making, modelling of the multiple stakes and socio-economic processes, introduction to dynamic and stochastic optimization approaches.

Objective

The course aims at illustrating the complex framework of participatory approach in the field of water resources projects, with particular focus on the modelling of the quantitative aspects of the combined dynamics of the physical and socio-economic processes.

Content

Lec 00. Course introduction. The world water resources. Water crisis and the concept of Participatory and Integrated Water Resources Management (PIWRM). Water trading. Lec 01. Rationalizing the decision-making process. From traditional water resources planning and management to PIWRM: rationalizing and supporting the decision-making process. The need for negotiations. Negotiation game. Outline of the Participatory and Integrated Planning procedure proposed as a guidance to the decision-making process using a real world case study. Lec 02. Cloosing the loop: how to plan the management. How to incorporate recurrent management decisions into a rational decision-making framework. From model based decision-making to decision support systems. Full-rationality and partial-rationality. Underlying example the Zambezi river system. Lec 03. Actions and evaluation criteria. Identification of the actions suitable to pursue the overall objective of the planning exercise. Type of actions and associated property. Embedding actions into models. Stakeholders, sectors and evaluation criteria: how stakeholders evaluate the planning alternatives. Criterion hierarchy and indicators: operationalize evaluation criteria. Lec 04. Criteria and indicators. Example of indicators. Validation of the indicators against the stakeholders. Numerical exercise. Underlying examples from Red River System (Vietnam), Tono dam (Japan), Googong reservoir (Australia), Lake Maggiore and Lake Como (Italy). Lec 05. Re-operating the Kafue reservoir system. Real world case study developed interactively with the students, to experience all the concepts provided in the previous lectures. Reading material will be assigned on 22.3 Lec 06. Models of a water system. The system analysis perspective on water resources modelling. Example of models of water system components (reservoir, diversion dam, rivers, users). Implications of cooperation and information sharing on the model formulation. Operational implications of model complexity. Case studies. Lec 07. Formulation of the planning/management problem. Why we need it. What do we need to formulate the problem: from the indicators to the objectives; time horizon; scenarios. Dealing with uncertainty. Problem formulation and classification. How do modelling choices affect the final solution (hidden subjectivity). Lec 08. Water resources optimal planning. The planning of water resources. Examples from real world problems at different scales (e.g. Egypt Water plan; Controlling salt intrusion in Nauru (Pacific Island); planning water quality remediation interventions in lakes and reservoirs (Googong reservoir, Australia)). Interactive lectures with students. Overview of the different approaches available to resolve the problem, from exact solution to heuristic. Lec 09. Planning the New Valley water system in Egypt. Real world case study developed interactively with the student, to experience all the concepts provided in the previous lectures. Lec 10. Planning in non stationary conditions: the Red River (Vietnam). Real world case study developed interactively with the student, to experience all the concepts provided in the previous lectures.

Resources