About this Perspective paper:

Analytical models play an ever-increasing  role in the complex world of water resources planning and management. They support key decision-making for managing flood risk, building dams, managing groundwater, and bringing together the social, economic, and environmental issues and challenges of integrated water resources management (IWRM). But models only provide us with one view of the world. There are other views, like those of stakeholders who live and work in river basins. If decisions about water management are to be widely accepted and implemented, asking stakeholders to approve pre-selected solutions is not good enough.

This perspective paper argues for bringing stakeholders and technical experts together in a formal procedure much earlier in the planning process, and for developing models not just for analytical purposes but to build consensus, trust, and improve decision-making. This approach is called ‘collaborative modelling’.

Connected to this perspective paper