Exploring Implications of Climate, Land Use, and Policy Intervention Scenarios on Water Resources, Livelihoods, and Resilience

Abstract

The potential of integrated assessment methodologies to understand and support resource management problems is increasingly promoted in the scientific and associated management literature. This is because of the need to take a 'whole of system' approach to complex environmental problems, where complex and interacting processes exist within a system. Integrated Assessment Models (IAM) provide a framework that represents the current understanding of the system, identifies key relationships along with critical knowledge gaps, and explores likely trade-offs between environmental, economic or social outcomes under alternative management options. In this chapter, outputs from the hydrogeological, hydrological, biophysical and socioeconomic analyses presented in earlier chapters are used to explore the possible impacts of biophysical and socioeconomic scenarios on capital stocks and drought resilience.