From the Back Cover:
The Integrated Water Resources Management paradigm has entered the lexicon of water managers and stakeholders as the mainstream approach to the planning and management of water resource systems. It is the central pillar of the EU Water Framework Directive, which is widely accepted as the most significant piece of water legislation produced in the past 20 years, as well as the inspiring principle of all the water related activities sponsored by many international organizations in developing countries. However, despite huge inputs of financial resources, implementation of full IWRM remains elusive in most of the cases owing to the lack of a systematic approach and the inadequacy of tools and techniques to address the intrinsically complex nature of water resource systems.
This book explores recent and important contributions of System Analysis and Control Theory to the technical application of such paradigm and to the improvement of its theoretical basis. Its prior aim is to demonstrate how the modelling and computational difficulties posed by this paradigm might be significantly reduced by strengthening the efficiency of the solution techniques, instead of weakening the integration requirements.
In order to emphasize the role of System Analysis and Control Theory methodologies as different stages of an integrated, multi-objective approach to planning and management, within a participatory decision-making prospective, the book is composed of three parts, Modelling, Managing and Planning, plus an opening and a closing chapter. The introductory chapter formalizes the IWRM paradigm in a nine-step decision-making procedure that provides the reader with a conceptual map of the book and shows the value of its subject matter. Each part is opened by an invited contribution from an outstanding scientist in the field: Prof. Peter Young from Lancaster University, UK, Prof. Aris Georgakakos from GeorgiaTech, USA, and Prof. Slobodan Simonovic from Western Ontario University, Canada. Present and future research directions on the border between System Analysis and IWRM are surveyed in the chapter that closes the volume, where a pool of scientists and experts, coordinated by Prof. Anthony Jakeman from the Australian National University, suggests a research agenda to achieve sustainable (environmental, economic and social) outcomes in the implementation of the IWRM paradigm.
About the Author:
Andrea Castelletti received a MS degree in Environmental Engineering and a PhD in Information Engineering from Politecnico di Milano, Italy, in 1999 and 2005. He is Assistant Professor of Modelling and Control of Environmental Systems in the same university. His main research interests focus on modelling and control of water resource systems and Decision Support System design.
Rodolfo Soncini-Sessa received his PhD on System Analysis at Politecnico di Milano, Italy in 1972; he was with the Water Group of the International Institute for System Analysis (IIASA) several times since 1975 and thought Water Management in some Italian Universities before being full professor of Natural Resources Management at the Politecnico di Milano. He is chair of the IFAC TC on Modelling & Control of Environmental Systems, and in the Editorial Boards of Water International and Journal of Environmental Modelling and Software. His main research interests are in the design of DSS for participatory decision making in the area of water resources.
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