Collaborative modelling is recommended to support complex water resources planning processes that are influenced by diverse and sometimes conflictive stakeholder values. In the case of Shared Vision Planning (SVP), collaborative modelling was devised to structure the participation of stakeholders for planning for capital investments, such as flood management reservoirs. Their application to typical water resources problems is broad. In the city of Udon Thani, Thailand collaborative modelling was used to develop an urban plan with infrastructure for flood risk reduction. It has also been used to develop IWRM river basin plans in Peru. The principles are applicable to many types of planning challenges to support Water policy/legislation reform, project planning, a national water strategy or allocations, or bi or multi-lateral treaties, such as by the Great Lakes study.The process is best suited when planning or decision making has become limited by the opposing interests of key stakeholders, such as might be expected from IWRM planning. Otherwise, standard planning will be sufficient. This is not to say that stakeholders are not engaged in standard planning, but rather that they do not have a key role in collaborating in the technical analysis.
Such processes move from a concise definition of the problem statement or vision to a conceptualisation of the relevant tools capable of analysing it. These tools must be designed at an appropriate level of complexity to meet the objectives of the planning process, as well as provide sufficient, credible information that is relevant to decision making. These tools are then used within the planning process to develop and evaluate strategies, such that a preferred course of action may be determined. The implementation of the selected strategy is then supported by regular monitoring and evaluation. For collaborative modelling, this overarching planning process must be integrated with each of the other three pillars.
Given its specific relevance to complex problems, collaborative modelling is most applicable in problem contexts characterized by their semi-structured or completely unstructured nature .These are contexts where there is little consensus among stakeholders (regarding values, norms and standards, beliefs and ambitions) and/or a lack of scientific certainty (Box: Problem Structure). Note that in those instances where divisions between stakeholders are too extreme, alternative conflict management tools and methodologies may be required.
TEXT BOX: Problem structure
Types of policy problems based on their structure:
(i) structured problems, for which a high level of scientific certainty exists and there is a high degree of consensus among stakeholders;
(ii) semi-structured problems, which can be the result of either (i) low degree of consensus (regarding values, norms and standards, beliefs and ambitions) in combination with some certainty about the scientific knowledge, or (ii) the knowledge of the system is limited in combination with consensus among stakeholders;
(iii) unstructured problems, for which a low degree of consensus exists and there is a lack of scientific certainty.
