2nd WEAP Regional Conference: Applying a Decision Support System as a Tool for Integrated Water Resources Management and Climate Change Adaptation

Introduction
The conference organizers, the Arab Center for the Studies of Arid Zones and Dry Lands (ACSAD), Damascus, Syria, and the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), Hannover, Germany, the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), Boston USA and the Ministry of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries of Tunisia, kindly invite you to the second regional WEAP conference.We wish to have a conference, which communicates a practical tool for water and soil management from the technical level into the level of decision making under the motto “applied science for water policy”. We are addressing our methodological approach at institutions responsible for the use of the water resources from basin agencies up to the ministerial level. Our goal is to assist in the formation of a comprehensive system for the IWRM process to ensure the sustainable water management based on the available resources.The conference will deal with the technical aspects of the DSS as well as water policy based on examples from best practice in the management of water resources. A field trip in Tunisia will be included. We invite WEAP users topresent their case studies, as well as officials and government administrators.

Information to the first WEAP conference can be found here.

• • DSS for IWRM
• WEAP applications  mainly in the field of   

- Integrated Water Resources Management and
- Climate Change Adaptation
- Water Quality

• WEAP enhancements   - Optimization   - Soil water model

• Water Policy and Socio-economic Aspects  

Background

Water Resources are very scarce in the Arab region. Recent climate change models predict even more severe conditions for the future, due to increasing temperatures and decreasing precipitation. 
Therefore it is important that water resources are managed carefully in a sustainable way following the IWRM concept. This is a very difficult task and reliable tools are needed to support the management and planning. 
The application of the Decision Support System (DSS) WEAP-MODFLOW in Soil and Groundwater Management will give decision makers the necessary insight into the current status and possible scenarios of the future development. The methodology proposed can guide decisions with regard to population growth (increasing demand) and climate change (dwindling resources). Visualizing the actual situation and future scenarios and discuss possibilities of sharing the water with the stakeholders can reduce conflicts between concurrent water-users.
The DSS software provides the necessary information base for a sustainable IWRM concept and help to overcome the key problem, which is the insufficient knowledge of the hydrological system and thus the available water resources. Applying the methodology in decision making can avoid overexploitation and water quality deterioration.
It is also the main task of the Arab Water Ministerial Council to adopt a water policy based on sustainability.

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