Using Models in Water Management: Philosophy, Principles and Practice
Water management is about obtaining the most appropriate and beneficial mix of multiple types of benefits from water resources. Social and governmental values determine what constitutes an appropriate benefit and how the achievement of those benefits should be balanced to provide the best mix. Science cannot determine what values are appropriate nor how they should be balanced.
Science, largely through the use of management models, can predict with some limited accuracy and precision the effect that existing and proposed management actions will have on benefits derived from water resources. The focus of this presentation will be on how models can be designed or chosen and then used for this function, and how Modelling results can be made most useful and informative to water managers, decision makers, and the public. The talk will draw on examples from the author’s long experience in the field. It will cover:
Science, largely through the use of management models, can predict with some limited accuracy and precision the effect that existing and proposed management actions will have on benefits derived from water resources. The focus of this presentation will be on how models can be designed or chosen and then used for this function, and how Modelling results can be made most useful and informative to water managers, decision makers, and the public. The talk will draw on examples from the author’s long experience in the field. It will cover:
- developing performance metrics
- designing models and post-processors to display those metrics
- ensuring model credibility
- ensuring that models can evaluate all candidate alternatives
- the modeler’s responsibility to ensure that, in so far as possible, alternatives that provide the most effective (non-inferior) mixes of possible benefits are identified
