A new modeling approach for water resources policy analysis

Water resources policy analysis deals with the protection of people from th e harmful effects of water and assurance of a consistent, adequate supply o f usable water. Population and regulatory pressures, political and economic instabilities, and climatic variations can all be expected to further stre ss water supply resources. Developing policy for managing water systems for human needs in such an environment is difficult, slow, and very costly. Th e approach to water resources policy analysis developed in this paper is th at of the rational decision maker who lays out goals and uses logical proce sses to explore the best way to reach those goals. The decision maker may b e an individual or a group. The emphasis in this paper is on how water reso urces decisions ought to be analyzed and made. In establishing this framewo rk we are proposing integration of object-oriented modeling approach with s ystems analysis. Our concern here is with how the water policy analysis pro cess should be structured to best address a policy choice, and with the obj ect-oriented model that will aid understanding and prediction. The proposed approach is illustrated in the paper by the case study of water resources policy analysis for Egypt.