Towards a hydroinformatics framework to aid decision-making for catchment management

Abstract

What Is the role of hydroinformatics in improving the balance between profitable rural landscapes and environmental quality? Growing recognition of the need for integrated approaches to land and water management, taking account of socio-economic development and environmental considerations, has given rise to concepts such as sustainable development and Integrated River Basin Management. Models and information systems have a place in integrated land-water management, but only if researchers and practitioners engage with wider concerns and work across disciplines. Thus a balanced approach to decision-making is proposed involving partnerships between stakeholders and researchers in the natural and social sciences, using quantitative and qualitative tools. Involvement of stakeholders tied to all scales is essential to building successful partnerships and thus the importance of public engagement is emphasized, A multi-scale land and water management framework is proposed that attempts to capitalize on current expertise. The place of hydroinformatics tools such as models, GlS and flow visualization software is discussed and a number of specific tools are presented including a novel decision support tool: the Decision Support Matrix. The use of conceptual models to aid communication is discussed and two attempts to apply the framework from projects in the UK and the Western Balkans are presented.

Communicating risks to infrastructure due to soil erosion: A bottom‐up approach

“…Previous applications of the DSM approach have resulted in a variety of tools including illustrations of good and bad practice, interactive tools for assessing specific fields and practices, and advice on mitigation measures (Hewett et al, ; Hewett et al, ; Hewett et al, ; Wilkinson et al, ). It should be noted that, although such tools can be used in isolation, they are best applied within a decision‐making framework involving multiscale modelling of processes, demonstration farms, stakeholder engagement, and tool development in an iterative cycle (Hewett et al, ).…”

“…Participative approaches have been shown to increase the adoption and success of environmental projects (Arnalds, ). The approach is supported by measurement, mapping, mathematical modelling, and the production of risk‐indicator maps generated within an iterative decision support framework, an essential element of which is the generation of simple communication and visualisation tools codeveloped by researchers and stakeholders (Hewett et al, ). Shared knowledge generation and codesign of tools are of central importance as it engenders a sense of common ownership of, and trust in, the tools produced (Wakeford, ; Whitman et al, ).…”

Sustainability of Water Withdrawals in the Tiber River Basin (Central Italy)

“…All these papers are oriented to the web use as a new challenge in water resources management, in particular to synthesize access to data that are held in a myriad of independently agencies [4]. The need for a shared information between all the stakeholders, supported by hydroinformatics tools, has been presented by Hewett et al [5], with particular attention to an integrated river basin management.…”

Community modeling systems: classification and relevance to hydrologic modeling

“…The critical zone is therefore the target realm in which we seek to track the movement of water and try to determine stores and resident times of where fhe water resides. This in turn requires an integrated modeling approach rather than a piecemeal execution of software packages originally doi: 10.2166/hydro.2012.060 developed for isolated layers in this zone (Hewett et al 2010). …”