干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Global change and its consequences require reliable and robust methods for an efficient and sustainable management of increasingly scarce water resources. Integrated approaches are recommended (e.g. river basin management or integrated water resources management) to ensure a long-term management and development of watersheds and their resources considering economic, ecological and social aspects. However, implementing such approaches is accompanied by various technical-methodical challenges, for instance resulting from the complexity of management problems or the modelling approaches required for adequately portraying the interactions between the systems under consideration. This set of problems is illustrated by means of the integrated management of coupled ground-water-agriculture hydrosystems in arid and semiarid coastal regions. A newly developed simulation-based integrated water management system is presented which unites process modelling with artificial intelligence tools and hierarchical optimisation strategies for ensuring a fast and robust operation. By using multi-criteria optimisation, sustainable solutions for the management of resources regarding water quality, water quantity, and socio-economy can be provided on a farm and regional scale.