Water management problems are becoming more challenging as climate change intensifies and water reliability declines. With tensions among users subsequently rising, and already-stressed ecosystems becoming less resilient to additional pressures, it becomes far more difficult to reach solutions that most stakeholders find acceptable. Models are important tools for understanding and managing such socio-environmental systems, although their capabilities in prediction and representing problems become more limited as the complexity of the system increases. For systems fraught with complexities and uncertainties, modelling remains valuable, however it must shift away from being a technical exercise towards being a social process for building a shared understanding among stakeholders, supporting dialogue, revealing assumptions and exploring scenarios. In this presentation I will explore the potential role of models in exploring complex water management problems, and discuss the modelling practices critical for ensuring that it is a useful tool for learning, communicating and navigating uncertainty.

About the Speaker

Serena is a research fellow in the area of water resources management and socio-environmental systems modelling. Her research has focussed on integrated assessment and modelling for improving understanding of system linkages and management of environmental resources and assets. She completed her PhD at the Fenner School of Environment & Society, ANU in 2013.