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Intuitive simulation, querying, and visualization for river basin policy and management
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by B. Eckman
P. C. West
C. Barford
G. Raber
and M. L. Reath
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Sustainable use of the freshwater resources of the world is an
urgent challenge. The World Health Organization recently
estimated that 1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water,
a problem the United Nations highlights in its Millennium
Development Goals. To address the scale and urgency of this
challenge, IBM, The Nature Conservancy, and the Center for
Sustainability and the Global Environment at the University of
Wisconsin–Madison are collaborating to develop innovative,
technology-based decision-support tools for improved management
of water resources worldwide. The Water for Tomorrow modeling
framework and decision support system (DSS) is designed to help
policy makers and a variety of stakeholders to assess, come to
consensus, and act on land-use decisions that balance human use,
ecosystem preservation, and ecosystem restoration. Such
stakeholders include farmers, fish and wildlife managers, food-processing
plant managers, and hydropower operators. Initially
focused on the Paraguay-Paraná Basin of Brazil, in partnership
with local academic and public-sector collaborators, the DSS
integrates data and models from a wide variety of environmental
sectors, including water balance, water quality, carbon balance,
crop production, and proxies for biodiversity. Intuitive interfaces
and complex query support allow users to reach a rich
understanding of the effect of changes in management on
freshwater ecosystems.
 Full paper
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