Interdisciplinary assessment of complex regional water systems and their future evolution: how socioeconomic drivers can matter more than climate

Reynard, Emmanuel; Bonriposi, Mariano; Graefe, Olivier; Homewood, Christine; Huss, Matthias; Kauzlaric, Martina Catharina; Liniger, Hanspeter; Rey, Emmanuel; Rist, Stephan; Schädler, Bruno; Schneider, Flurina; Weingartner, Rolf (2014). Interdisciplinary assessment of complex regional water systems and their future evolution: how socioeconomic drivers can matter more than climate. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water, 1(4), pp. 413-426. Wiley 10.1002/wat2.1032

Text wat21032.pdf - Published Version Restricted to registered users only Available under License Publisher holds Copyright. Download (270kB)

Modeling of future water systems at the regional scale is a difficult task due to the complexity of current structures (multiple competing water uses, multiple actors, formal and informal rules) both temporally and spatially. Representing this complexity in the modeling process is a challenge that can be addressed by an interdisciplinary and holistic approach. The assessment of the water system of the Crans-Montana-Sierre area (Switzerland) and its evolution until 2050 were tackled by combining glaciological, hydrogeological, and hydrological measurements and modeling with the evaluation of water use through documentary, statistical and interview-based analyses. Four visions of future regional development were co-produced with a group of stakeholders and were then used as a basis for estimating future water demand. The comparison of the available water resource and the water demand at monthly time scale allowed us to conclude that for the four scenarios socioeconomic factors will impact on the future water systems more than climatic factors. An analysis of the sustainability of the current and future water systems based on four visions of regional development allowed us to identify those scenarios that will be more sustainable and that should be adopted by the decision-makers. The results were then presented to the stakeholders through five key messages. The challenges of communicating the results in such a way with stakeholders are discussed at the end of the article.

Interest & Impact

Downloads

7 since deposited on 07 Oct 2014
0 in the past 12 months

Citations

5 Citations in Web of Science ®
6 Citations in Scopus

Search

in Google Scholar™

Services

Actions (login required)

Edit item

Actions (login required)

Edit item