ISSUE 1 |
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Defining Strategies | ||
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A strategy is by definition a detailed plan or method that is employed to obtain a goal; it is a means of translating policy into action. For the purposes of the WaterStrategyMan Project, the term “Strategy” has been defined as the set of actions or sequence of responses to existing and emerging conditions, which is suited/available aiming at the fulfilment of a selected goal. In the case of the Project, the goal is that of addressing the issue of water scarcity in Southern Europe through Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), within the bounds of the Water Framework Directive and taking into accounts the specific parameters of each individual case. The three major goals of IWRM are:
shortages, and to distribute the cost equitably among all end-user sectors (Domestic, Tourist, Agriculture, Industry).
sustainability, through the enforcement of regulations and the mitigation of impacts. In the case of the Mediterranean in particular, it is very important to reduce drillings abstractions to sustainable levels.
of the Operational, Opportunity and Environmental Costs of water provision on a local level, and the reduction of State subsidies to a minimum. |
A water resources management strategy is different to the master plans that countries and/or regions develop. Master Plans tend to be project-oriented, and the product of a master plan is often a specific set of projects to be undertaken, with the corresponding investments. Master plans can follow an accepted strategy, as a set of interventions planned within its framework of the strategy; however without reference to a specific strategy, a master plan can easily disregard the long-term issue of building water management capacity. On the other hand, the product of strategy formulation is not a specific set of projects. It is a set of medium- to long-term action programs to support the achievement of development goals and to implement water-related policies that does not include project identification, ranking, or financing. A strategy should address a wide variety of aspects of water resources management, including the institutional and human resources framework and the enhancement of water management capacity. |
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Figure 2. The Strategy Formulation process in WSM | ||
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Strategy Formulation | ||
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The generation and evaluation of Strategies in the Water Strategy Man Project framework can be distinguished into four separate levels of action. Levels 1 and 4 involve researching and analyzing the scope and the strategy itself. Levels 2 and 3 involve the evaluation of the strategy, primarily by a Decision Support System that will provide indicators of performance and subsequently by experts and stakeholders who will determine its feasibility and applicability. The main steps in each level are: Level 1 – Setting the Scope
Options
Level 2 – Strategic Plan Evaluation
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Level 3 – Strategy Analysis
stakeholders, and
measures Level 4 – Strategy Elaboration
and Protocols of Implementation A prerequisite to the process of Strategy formulation is the assessment of the water resources and related activities of each region. This includes a description of water-related policies in the region as well as the country in question, identifying and analyzing issues in water resources management, and collecting data on the physical aspects and wide variety of factors that influence the development of water resources. |
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Level 1 – Setting the Scope | ||
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For the first level, which has three main components, the key factor is the participation of Stakeholders and end-users, an important aspect that distinguishes the process of strategy formulation. Stakeholder participation involves those who are affected by or involved in water resource management decision making. In the process of strategy formulation, it ensures transparency and accountability for decisions and promotes commitment to the decisions made. It provides unique insight and hands-on experience in the issues of the region in question, and a range of responses potentially unidentified under different circumstances. It is important however to avoid the over-politicization of issues. The first step of the methodology is therefore to approach stakeholders and decision makers, and to collect their opinions on Water Management in their regions, discuss the regional development goals, which should guide the entire process of formulating the strategy, as well as their own perception of the problem and its solutions. They should be able to provide a wide overview of the specific issues that they have had to deal with, as well as identify solutions that they have successfully (and unsuccessfully) employed. They will also be able to propose their own specific development goals in their respective sectors, which are valuable in projecting the future demand. |
After collecting all the opinions from the various stakeholders, the next step is to integrate those solutions proposed into a list of options provided by experts that incorporates the IWRM principles. A comprehensive list of options should include technical measures for the enhancement of supply, institutional measures or reform, capacity-building, environmental measures, and demand management options inclusive of pricing instruments, water saving technologies and educational and public awareness campaigns to promote conservation. This should be followed by a thorough examination of the strategy goals and of forecasts for the future; it will be necessary to develop quantitative and qualitative projections for the supply and for the demand in the various sectors. These should be ranked in order of importance, in order to enable efficient allocation of the resources to the highest value use. Another important issue to determine is timing, as issues may need to be addressed in different time frames. Having a clear goal in sight, the options provided should be ranked to produce a sequence of acceptable/available measures, which will be the proposed strategy. |
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Level 2 – Strategic Plan Evaluation | ||
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The second level of action involves the evaluation of the Strategy using the Decision Support System that has been developed. The model optimally allocates water from available and user-defined sources to user-defined uses, taking into account user-defined priorities for each use and the selected strategy under different scenarios, and assesses the quality of the available resources. The Decision Support System can be used to estimate how much water is needed and to determine what interventions, as well as when and where, are necessary, and their cost. It can provide indicators of performance for the selected strategy under every given scenarios, and rank those scenarios. A scenario, for the purposes of the project, has been defined as “Developments which can not be directly influenced by the Decision Maker”. Such developments significant to the outcome of a given Strategy include the weather and its influence on the water balance. The coverage of demand is dependent on the supply of water, and directly influenced by dry years; it therefore follows that the effectiveness and performance of a selected strategy will be directly affected by the frequency of dry years forecasted in the scenario. |
This is therefore a factor to be considered when evaluating the strategy; its efficiency under actual conditions may differ unless the scenarios tested reflect the actual forecast of the region based on time series data. In case of inadequate data, the efficiency of a strategy should be evaluated under 4 different weather scenario groups and ranked for all:
droughts and
droughts. To select a strategy, the user activates water resources management options in the system. The model then initiates a simulation of water allocation for a pre-defined time period (usually 30 years); at the end of the simulation, an overall performance indicator is produced, as well as a number of indicators and charts that are provided to the user for assessment in the next level. |
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Level 3 – Strategy Analysis | ||
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In Level 3 once again the participation of Stakeholders and experts is a key issue. They should be called to evaluate the Strategy based not only on the outcomes of the Decision Support System, its overall performance and the individual indicators, but also based on experience and on technical, sociological, environmental, and economic grounds. The criteria to be used in the process should be specified in the evaluation of the strategy, in order to ensure transparency and objectivity. The risks associated with adopting each particular strategy should be highlighted and taken into consideration for its evaluation. |
In addition to the evaluation of the strategy, however, it is equally important that the Enabling Environment for its implementation is determined. Prerequisites to implementation need to be determined, evaluated for applicability and elaborated, such as but not limited to:
mobilization
pricing structures |
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Level 4 – Strategy Elaboration | ||
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The final stage of strategy formulation is the elaboration of each Strategy into instructions that can be implemented by Decision-makers. These instructions will be developed in the form of Guidelines and Protocols of Implementation. Strategy Guidelines are a set of instructions that analyze a given strategy into actions required within the selected water management options, set within a suitable but flexible time framework. The Guidelines will provide a step-by-step analysis of the specific tasks to be undertaken within the framework of a strategy and their specifications (relative costs, duration, and project lifetime). |
They will provide the results of the strategic plan evaluation of Level 2 and the strategy analysis of Level 3, as well as the constraints and risks involved. A Protocol of Implementation for a Strategy will provide the set of accompanying measures required to create the Enabling Environment for its implementation. It will encompass the set of prerequisite measures that are required for the implementation of the strategy, as those are elaborated by the Stakeholders in Level 3, and step-by-step instructions for their execution. |
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Developing strategies for Water Strategy Man
Equitability, in order to minimize water
Identification of Goals