Strategic Tools to Support Adaptive, Integrated Water Resource Management under Changing Utilisation Conditions at Catchment Level: A Coevolutionary Approach. 

The AQUADAPT project

The overall aim of the AQUADAPT project is to generate knowledge which supports the strategic planning and management of water resources in semi-arid environments at catchment level under changing supply / demand patterns. The intellectual framework which underpins the project reflects recent thinking on the co-evolution of natural resource availability with human societies. Hence, we explicitly seek to provide a basis for the integration of water resource planning with structural, social, economic, agricultural and regional development planning. Organised in seven work packages, AQUADAPT involves 13 academic and industrial partners from 7 countries.

Specific actions undertaken within the AQUADAPT research programme include:

1. Development of a computer-based tool to support strategic planning of water utilisation patterns at catchment level.
2. Analysis of the envelope of attitudinal, behavioural, and cultural factors which influence water utilisation by individuals and groups of individuals under conditions of increasing water stress.
3. Identification of the options for adapting water resource governance structures to changing demands stemming from more intensive water utilisation patterns.
4. Characterisation of the relationships between changing rainfall patterns, land use patterns, hydrological balances, agricultural potential, and environmental integrity.
5. Provision of historical and archaeological perspectives on the co-evolutionary relationships between human settlement and water availability in semi-arid environments.
6. Advancement of complimentary theories in the fields of knowledge representation, knowledge transfer, sustainability, landscape sensitivity, and policy development.

Output will be directly relevant to several aspects of the Water Framework Directive, supporting both decision making and stakeholder participation in water resource planning and management.

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