River Basin Management (RBM) presents a very complex decision making context. It is characterised with diverse interactions among the natural - physical system, the socioeconomic system that relies upon the water resources of a given river basin and the administrative-institutional system responsible for river basin planning and management.

These complex interactions require full understanding of the various systems’ components and translation of their interactions into structured formulations as decision making problems. Such formulations lead towards the development of decision support tools and systems that can aid decision makers and various stakeholders involved in river basin management in their decision making processes.

This online short course is primarily focused on developing competences in proper formulation of decision making problems as well as understanding of the appropriate usage of various tools and techniques such as simulation, optimisation and multi-criteria analyses. Following this course will help answering questions such as:

What are the challenges of integrated RBM?
Which guiding principles (sustainability, equity) form the basis for successful RBM?
How can different management options be linked to the multiple river basin functions?
How can we utilise systems analysis approaches to formulate structured decision making problem descriptions using alternatives and objectives?
What is the role and applicability of various tools and techniques for solving such decision making problems (simulation, optimisation, multi-criteria analyses)?

The course will also give an overview of a generic structure of computer-based decision support systems in river basin management as well as an overview of different kinds of DSSs required at different decision-making level (operational management, planning and design, policy formulation).

Learning objectives

Participants who will successfully complete the course will be able to:

Identify the key challenges in River Basin Management and understand the need for decision support tools
Translate RBM problems into structured decision making problems using systems analysis approaches through formulation of alternatives and objectives
Identify the role and applicability of modelling simulation for the purposes of decision support
Set-up and execute moderately complex river basin simulation models
Identify the role and applicability of various optimisation techniques for the purposes of decision support
Formulate several typical water resources problems as optimisation problems and solve them using optimisation software packages
Identify the role and applicability of Multi Criteria Analyses (MCA) techniques for the purposes of decision support
Formulate given river basin management problem as an MCA problem and analyse it using specialized software
Understand the generic structure of a computer-based DSSs used in RBM and distinguish different types of DSSs

Target group

The course is designed for young and mid-level professionals who are involved in decision making processes in river basins at different levels, or those who are developing modelling and information systems support for managing water resources in river basins. Participants who want to develop competencies in these fields can also apply for the course.

Course content

Subjects	Syllabus
1. River Basin Management	Introduction to the concept of RBM; Guiding principles in RBM; relations between the natural, socioeconomic and administrative systems; functions and users; Challenges: integration across functions, upstream-downstream integration, trade-offs; Nature of RBM complexity requiring decision support
2. Decision support: structuring decision making problems and solution techniques	Introduction to decision making processes; Formulation of objectives and alternatives; Hierarchical structuring of objectives; Formulation of alternatives in terms of control (decision) variables; Introduction to simulation, optimisation and multi-criteria analyses as techniques used in decision support
3. Modelling simulations as tools for decision support in RBM	Modelling paradigms: physically-based modelling, data-driven modelling-agent-based modelling; Types of modelling used for RBM: river basin modelling; catchment modelling; river and flood Modelling; water quality and ecological modelling; socioeconomic modelling; Special focus on River Basin Modelling; Computer exercises with River Basin Modelling Software
4. Optimisation techniques for decision support in RBM	Introduction to optimisation; Classical optimisation (calculus-based); Single-objective and multi-objective optimisation; Linear Programming; Dynamic Programming; Formulation of typical water resources problems as optimisation problems; Exercises with optimisation software packages
5. Multi-Criteria Analyses (MCA) techniques and their role in decision support for RBM	The need for MCA; Definition of MCA problems; Solution methods – compensatory and non-compensatory; Decision matrix and its use; Multiple Attributes Decision Methods (MADM); Computer exercises with DSS software that implements MCA
6. Structure and types of DSSs for RBM	Introduction to DSS as computer-based tools; Structure of a generic DSS; Types of DSSs; Examples of developed DSSs and case studies

The total study load is 140 hours distributed over 10 weeks (average study load of about 14 hours per week) and is equivalent to full-time study of 3 weeks.

Additional information

For more information about the contents and the structure of the course, please contact Andreja Jonoski (a.jonoski@unesco-ihe.org).