Trade-off between environmental flows and consumptive water use (Contact: Dan Rosbjerg, Torkil Jønch-Clausen)
Analytical methods are developed to enable the definition and quantification of the volume (including timing) and quality of flows as a function of ecosystem conditions. These methods are used to estimate the costs of meeting these environmental flow requirements and to evaluate the sensitivity of environmental flows to changes in upstream land/water use. The methods facilitate the identification of trade-offs between water for development and for the environment.
Impact and mitigation of hydrologic extremes (droughts and floods) (Contact: Dan Rosbjerg, Torkil Jønch-Clausen, Karsten Arnbjerg-Nielsen)
Hydrologic extremes are dependent not only on the duration, intensity, and spatial extent of a specific drought episode, but also on the human activities, topography, and vegetation in the region. Improved methods for estimation of hydrologic extremes and improved methodologies for land and water use planning are developed. Methods are also developed to enable mitigation of the effects of hydrologic extremes by studying control options and preparedness.
Coupled hydro-economic modeling at the catchment scale (Contact: Peter Bauer-Gottwein, Karsten Arnbjerg-Nielsen)
According to the IWRM paradigm, water resources management should take into account environmental sustainability, economic efficiency and social equity. To enable project and scenario analysis with respect to these objectives, operational tools are required that link hydrologic and economic processes at the catchment scale. In the context of project-based cost-benefit analysis, equilibrium economics and marginal change analysis are appropriate. Radical changes in the natural resources system, the socio-economic system and the administrative-institutional system are addressed with agent-based simulation tools.
Water resources risk assessment (Contact: Philip Binning, Poul Bjerg)
The EU Water Framework Directive requires all EU member states to ensure the quality and good ecological status of their water resources. Water quality is determined by the sources of contamination in a catchment. To assess the impact of these contaminant sources, monitoring, modeling and risk assessment tools are required. To address data limitations inherent in risk assessment, the tools must be simple and flexible. These tools are developed and tested at a variety of field sites.
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