Structuring multidisciplinary knowledge for model-based water management: the HarmoniQuA approach

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) provides European policy at the river basin scale. It explicitly states that water resource models should be applied. The EU- financed project HarmoniQuA aims at improving the quality of model based water management at catchment and river basin scales by providing guidance throughout the modelling process and by supporting all persons involved (water managers, modellers, auditors, stakeholders and concerned members of the public) in their activities. The guidelines are based on accepted and common methodology and practices of experienced modellers. This knowledge is collected, completed, improved and made available in the form of a Knowledge Base, using state-of-the-art knowledge engineering technology with an ontological approach. MoST, the software tool of HarmoniQuA, provides guidance from the Knowledge Base it supports monitoring of the modelling activities and reporting to various audiences. In the future MoST will use expertise collected in previous modelling studies to advise on how to perform the model study at hand. This paper focuses on how HarmoniQuA handles and improves existing knowledge on modelling for water managemen