project
NeWater
New Approaches to Adaptive Water Management under Uncertainty
Abstract
The main objective of NeWater was to understand and facilitate change towards adaptive strategies for integrated water resource management. These strategies were tailored to the different elements of the water system, such as the institutional, cultural, environmental, and technological settings of river basins. They take into account the possible threats posed to human society and eco-systems. While seeking such strategies, NeWater studied the capacity of individual basins to adapt to changing conditions.
The major tasks of the UFZ were firstly the scientific coordination of the Tisza river basin case study (Ukraine, Hungary) and, secondly, to contribute to Group Model Building (GMB), Causal-Loop-Diagramming (CLD), System Dynamics Modelling (SD) and Knowledge gaming (KnETs) first and foremost in the Ukrainian part if the basin. The Tisza case study, which pursued a strong participatory approach, allowed stakeholders to exchange their perspectives and use NeWater as a space for open discussions outside the requirements of daily management practice. A game was developed to explore new knowledge on water management complexity and the uncertainties regarding floodplain management in the Hungarian part of the basin. For the Ukrainian Tisza, a comprehensive participatory tool for understanding flood risk management schemes and eliciting flood risk decision-making was developed.
Contacts
Publications
Funding
6th Framework Programs of the EU
Partners
University of Osnabrück, Institute of Environmental Systems Research
www.usf.uni-osnabrueck.de
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
www.iiasa.ac.at
Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI)
www.sei.se
Transcarpathian Water Board (Ukraine)
HYDROMET, Kiev, Ukraine
Hungarian Academy of Sciences (RISSAC)
Links
Products (data, methods, tools, models, software)
Group Models Tisza
Causal-Loop-Diagrams Tisza
KnETs - Knowledge elicitation tools on decision-making heuristics
KnETs
Floodplain Management Game (link under construction)