A Proposal for a Decision Framework in the Skane Project

Water resources systems have been an important part of resources and environment related research at IIASA since its inception. As demands for water increase relative to supply, the intensity and efficiency of water resources management must be developed further. This in turn requires an increase in the degree of detail and sophistication of the analysis, including economic, social and environmental evaluation of water resources development alternatives aided by application of mathematical modeling techniques, to generate inputs for planning, design, and operational decisions. During the year of 1978 it was decided that parallel to the continuation of demand studies, an attempt would be made to integrate the results of our studies on water demands with water supply considerations. This new task was named "Regional Water Management" (Task 1, Resources and Environment Area) . It is concerned with the application of systems analysis techniques for planning and operational management of integrated regional water resources systems. This paper by Professor M.B. Fiering from Harvard University was drafted during his short visit to IIASA in March 1979. It contains a methodological proposal for analysis of regional water resources management. A model which couples alternative water demand patterns with the long-term availability of water is formulated