Abstract

This paper provides an introduction to, and an overview of, the Special Issue on the application of systems approach to the management of complex water systems. The main motivation in proposing this Special Issue was that today, more than ever, we need a systems approach to assist in dealing with the difficulties introduced by the increase in the complexity of water resource problems, consideration of environmental impacts, and the introduction of the principles of sustainability. This issue offers an opportunity to review applications of the systems approach to water resource management and draw lessons from worldwide experience relevant to future water problems. The Special Issue includes 15 contributions that offer an interesting view into contemporary problems, approaches, and issues related to management of complex water resources systems. It will be presumptuous to say that these 15 contributions characterize the success or failure of the systems approach to support water resources decision-making. However, these contributions offer some interesting lessons from the current experience and trace possible future work directions.

Highlights

  • During the past five decades, we have witnessed a tremendous evolution in water resource systems management

  • Three of the characteristics of this evolution should be noted in particular: (1) the application of the systems approach to complex water management problems has been established as one of the most important advances in the field of water resource management; (2) the past five decades have brought a remarkable transformation of attitude in the water resource management community towards environmental concerns, and action to address these concerns; and (3) applying the principles of sustainability to water resource decision-making requires major changes in the objectives on which decisions are based, and an understanding of the complicated inter-relationships between existing ecological, economic and social factors

  • The Special Issue includes 15 contributions that offer an interesting view into contemporary problems, approaches, and issues related to the management of complex water resources systems

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Summary

Introduction

During the past five decades, we have witnessed a tremendous evolution in water resource systems management. The experience presented through contributions of the Special Issue and [5] offer the following summary of the current state of the water resources systems approach: (i) the water resources systems approach today offers a scientific interdisciplinary context for dealing with the complex practical issues of water management and prediction of the water resources future; (ii) the systems approach is helping all those who are responsible for water resources management to organize water related information and improve the decision-making; (iii) the implementation of the systems approach allows us to address complex problems in close collaboration with the general public; (iv) the systems approach, allows through clear articulation of assumptions, use of models, identification of feedback relationships, and monitoring system behavior, and helps decision-makers better anticipate future conditions and make smarter management decisions; (v) the tools of systems analysis (simulation, optimization and multi-objective analysis) provide decision-makers with the information for full understanding of the dynamics that direct the interactions between the social (people and economy), natural (water, land and air) and constructed systems (buildings, roads, bridges etc.); (vi) the systems approach is contributing to the improvement in human behavior by using systems thinking; and (vii) the systems approach leads to greater practical and safer uncertainty management policies for increasing the resilience of water systems to changing conditions. The future activities must continue: to deal with the most difficult complex water problems; to conduct further practice-based as well as fundamental research; and provide further capacity building”

Contributions
Conclusions

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