Evaluation

Water management options have quite different characteristics and impacts on the water basin and the local communities. Selecting the ones that should be included in the water management plan is complex. To support this process a multi-criteria analysis and a cost-effectiveness analysis were conducted.

The multi criteria analysis was designed as a participatory process. During a workshop, stakeholders were asked to select the evaluation criteria to decide how well options perform, as well as the importance of each of these criteria in relation to each other. Criteria referred to both the design of the water management options and their expected impacts on the river basin, as estimated with the fuzzy cognitive map.

The cost effectiveness analysis was based on an estimation of the costs of each of the options. This was performed using information on the cost of implementing and running similar options in other basins or on an implementation scenario defined with local stakeholders.Given available information, these costs are ranges rather than actual costs. The cost effectiveness was calculated using the results of the multi criteria analysis, based on the impact criteria only, and the estimated cost as a ratio.

These analyses give information to help select appropriate water management options based on their expected impacts and characteristics, and their cost-effectiveness.