Systems Approach to Management of Water Resources—Toward Performance Based Water Resources Engineering
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water Article Systems Approach to Management of Water Resources—Toward Performance Based Water Resources Engineering Slobodan P. Simonovic Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 5B9, Canada; [email protected]; Tel.: +1-519-661-4075 Received: 29 March 2020; Accepted: 20 April 2020; Published: 24 April 2020 Abstract: Global change, that results from population growth, global warming and land use change (especially rapid urbanization), is directly affecting the complexity of water resources management problems and the uncertainty to which they are exposed. Both, the complexity and the uncertainty, are the result of dynamic interactions between multiple system elements within three major systems: (i) the physical environment; (ii) the social environment; and (iii) the constructed infrastructure environment including pipes, roads, bridges, buildings, and other components. Recent trends in dealing with complex water resources systems include consideration of the whole region being affected, explicit incorporation of all costs and benefits, development of a large number of alternative solutions, and the active (early) involvement of all stakeholders in the decision-making. Systems approaches based on simulation, optimization, and multi-objective analyses, in deterministic, stochastic and fuzzy forms, have demonstrated in the last half of last century, a great success in supporting effective water resources management. This paper explores the future opportunities that will utilize advancements in systems theory that might transform management of water resources on a broader scale. The paper presents performance-based water resources engineering as a methodological framework to extend the role of the systems approach in improved sustainable water resources management under changing conditions (with special consideration given to rapid climate destabilization). An illustrative example of a water supply network management under changing conditions is used to convey the basic principles of performance-based water resources engineering methodology. Keywords: water resources systems; performance-based engineering; simulation; resilience 1. Introduction Two paradigms are identified by Simonovic [1] as shaping contemporary water resources management: “The first paradigm focuses on the complexity of the water resources management domain (increases with time), and the complexity of the modeling tools (decreases with time), in an environment characterized by continuous, rapid technological development (sharp increase in development over time). The illustrative presentation of the complexity paradigm is shown in Figure1a. The extension of temporal and spatial scales characterizing contemporary water resources management problems leads to an increase in the complexity of decision-making processes (which could be measured using a number of state variables on the vertical axis in Figure1a). The evolution of systems analysis with increasing computational power (expressed for example using computational time required for the solution of a problem on the vertical axis in Figure1a) results in more complex analytical tools being replaced by simpler and more robust search tools and very often by simple simulation (assessed using a number of mathematical relationships on the vertical axis in Figure1a). Water 2020, 12, 1208; doi:10.3390/w12041208 www.mdpi.com/journal/water Water 2020, 12, x FOR PEER REVIEW 2 of 17 The second paradigm deals with the water resources-related data availability (represented for example by the number of observation stations on the vertical axis in Figure 1b) and the natural variability of the domain variables (for example measured by the range of values that a particular state variable can take on the vertical axis in Figure 1b) in time and space that affect the uncertainty (possibly expressed by the statistical dispersion of the values attributed to a measured quantity on the vertical axis in Figure 1b) of water resources management decision-making (Figure 1b). Data necessary for management of water resources are costly and collected by various agencies. The financial constraints of government agencies that are responsible for the collection of water-related data have resulted in reduction of data collection programs in many countries.” Water 2020, 12, 1208 2 of 16 FigureFigure 1. 1. IllustrationIllustration of of the the ( (aa)) complexity complexity and and ( (bb)) uncertainty uncertainty paradigms paradigms (after (after [1]). [1]). TheThe traditional second paradigm understanding deals with of water the water resources resources-related management data is that availability it is the (representedmanagement forof waterexample resources by the [2 number–5]. 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