Systems approach to water management and infrastructure planning: role of integrated planning and collaborative decisions
Join us for a one-hour inaugural Transboundary Groundwater Resiliency Research (TGRR) seminar series presentation by Dr. Ana Mijic, Director of the Centre for Systems Engineering and Innovation at Imperial College London. This bi-monthly series provides perspectives from leading global researchers on how systems science and data science can contribute to transformative water research. A 20-minute Q&A session will follow Dr. Mijic’s presentation.
Systems approach to water management and infrastructure planning: role of integrated planning and collaborative decisions
Abstract
At a time of system shocks, significant underlying challenges are revealed in current approaches to delivering infrastructure, including the need for holistic assessment and that infrastructure users in many societies feel distant from nature. In this seminar, I will present systems approach for integrated land use planning and sustainable water management. The methods are based on a systems approach to infrastructure and environmental management, which identifies systems integration, integrated modelling and collaborative decisions as key research themes that can improve our understanding of the environmental impacts and multifunctionality of infrastructure interventions and operational decisions. I will introduce a novel Systems Water Management (SYWM) framework developed as part of the NERC Innovation Placement with the Environment Agency, and how its meta-model can be used to analyse a range of water management and land use planning challenges. I will also give examples of how the SYWM meta-model can be used to inform the development of integrated water management models at city and catchment scales to evaluate adaptation options designed to offset adverse impacts of development on water resources, water quality and flood risk. These models provide a much needed systems-level evidence that has a potential to inform environmental policy, local planning and water infrastructure decisions.
Dr. Ana Mijic is a Reader in Water Systems Integration and Director of the Centre for Systems Engineering and Innovation (CSEI). She leads the development of novel systems tools focused on quantifying the interaction between water systems and sustainable development. Currently, Ana is leading VENTURA, a project that brings together interdisciplinary expertise across fields of water management, systems engineering, computer and geoscience, digital technology, innovation, and social science. Ana is also a Systems Analysis Lead for the CAMELLIA impact program, where her work focuses on developing systems water management models.