Title: Indicators for Integrated Water Resources Management
Abstract: Integrated water resources management (IWRM) recommends that the planning and management activities of surface and subsurface water resources are carried out at the lowest appropriate level. Decentralizing these activities implies that various stakeholders, including water users and managers, will have a seat at the negotiation table when it comes to allocating the scarce resources. Decision support systems (DSS) can facilitate the emergence of a consensus between stakeholders about the allocation rules, by providing comprehensive, relevant, understandable, and timely information. In addition, the information should help water users to understand interests of both public and private stakeholders. To achieve this, we follow a participatory approach that allows stakeholders to define which information is presented in a DSS in order to evaluate different allocation alternatives. This approach is illustrated with a coastal aquifer in Almeria, Spain, which is the test site of the EU project ALERT. The overexploitation of the aquifer together with the uncoordinated management of the resource has led to saltwater intrusion which threatens the economic development of that region and the integrity of the environment.
Publication Year: 2007
Publication Date: 2007-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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