Many negotiations take place between farmers, water suppliers, public servants, and environmentalists to allocate water resources between users in different areas. However, few negotiations quantify the consequences of alternatives solutions. Models that are used are often oversimplified and only take into account elements that are easy to calculate, or they are too complex to be used for negotiations in real time. In all cases, they do not consider the heterogeneity of decision makers. The authors demonstrate that agent-based modeling could help these negotiations by showing the consequences of water allocation rules with respect to different criteria.
Water sharing has become a serious problem in France. One of the objectives of 1992 and 2000 directives proposed by the European Union was to reduce both the frequency and the extent of water conflicts through the establishment of multilateral negotiations, where different public and private interests can be represented in a structured institutional environment. In France, many negotiations take place at local level between farmers, water suppliers, public services and environmentalists to allocate water resources between users. We suggest that Agent-Based Modelling (ABM) using a multi-agent approach could help negotiations between different players by showing the consequences of water allocation rules and taking in consideration the players' respective attitudes and their ability to change their behaviour.
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