The impact of water availability and quality on human wellbeing occurs through complex interactions operating at multiple scales that present many challenges for modelling and analysis. Understanding these interactions in a wider decision making context is essential for the effective design, operation and management of infrastructure in managing water risks. Infrastructure plays a critical role in development, yet a better understanding of who benefits and who bears the cost is needed, particularly within poor and vulnerable communities. The effectiveness of infrastructure also relies on supporting institutions, operating in a broader socio-political context. Models designed for catchment level water resource assessment and interventions are typically poorly suited to characterising such complexities, and offer only partial insights which need integration with non-modelling information.
This session explores the intersection between water systems and poverty for infrastructure development, considering topics covering human-natural coupled systems, water security, infrastructure, and effective institutions. In particular, we seek perspectives from modellers and non-modellers alike on effective modelling practices for addressing challenges in water-poverty and infrastructure development. These perspectives can come from work in related areas, such as the pursuit of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, or other endeavours that require linking of very different knowledge types across different scales in complex human-natural coupled systems.
Key topics: Water security, Poverty, Infrastructure, Human-natural couple systems