Translating the ‘water scarcity – water reuse’ situation into an information system for decision-making

Müller, Andrea, Avellán, Tamara and Schanze, Jochen, (2021). Translating the ‘water scarcity – water reuse’ situation into an information system for decision-making. Sustainability Science, n/a-n/a

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  • Sub-type Journal article
    Author Müller, Andrea
    Avellán, Tamara
    Schanze, Jochen
    Title Translating the ‘water scarcity – water reuse’ situation into an information system for decision-making
    Appearing in Sustainability Science
    Publication Date 2021-12-17
    Place of Publication Cham, Switzerland
    Publisher Springer Nature
    Start page n/a
    End page n/a
    Language eng
    Abstract One key challenge of water resources management is the identification and processing of the information necessary for decision-making. This article aims to provide avenues for translating a ‘water scarcity–water reuse’ (WS–WR) situation into an information system. It is dedicated to supporting an integrated assessment in decision-making with the final goal of optimising water scarcity risk reduction and water reuse sustainability. The approach combines the following two strands: (1) specific interpretation of systems thinking and (2) systemic characterisation and interlinkage of indicators. The result is an analytical concept that translates the WS–WR situation into an information system consisting of two structured components, a multi-layer (ML) and a lane-based (LB) approach. While the multi-layer approach supports the description of the elements of the biophysical and information systems such as endpoints and descriptors, respectively, the lane-based approach aids in understanding the importance of indicators within the entire system and their distribution across risk and sustainability realms. The findings from a generic exemplification of the analytical concept depict the feasibility of identifying system-based endpoints representing the WS–WR situation and their translation via descriptors to an interlinked indicator set to jointly assess water scarcity risk and sustainability of the water reuse measures. Therefore, this analytical concept supports addressing the water resources management information challenge via a structured representation of the system’s complexity and the quantification and visualisation of interlinkages between the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of water scarcity risk and water reuse sustainability.
    UNBIS Thesaurus WATER REUSE
    DECISION-MAKING
    Keyword Water scarcity
    Systems thinking
    Indicator interlinkage
    Sustainability assessment
    Copyright Holder The Authors
    Copyright Year 2021
    Copyright type Creative commons
    DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-021-01077-9
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    Created: Thu, 20 Jan 2022, 00:58:13 JST by Eric Siegmund on behalf of UNU FLORES