Title: Water management policy for sustainable development

Authors: Fouzia Siddiq, Mitali De, Keith W. Hipel

Addresses: Department of Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada. ' Department of Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada; School of Business and Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3C5, Canada. ' Department of Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada; Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada

Abstract: Irresponsible activities by society expose water to a wide variety of risks. These risks can be minimised by designing and implementing domestic and international water management policies that link the environment, socio-cultural concerns and economic issues in a way that could bring long term benefits to present and future generations. This paper provides an example of a system methodology to compare federal water management polices/guidelines of three industrially developed countries according to a range of selected criteria related to water quality, management technique, involvement of people in decision making process, and implication of water management policy. Then evaluation matrices of criteria versus policies are formed. Analyses of matrices using Composite Programming (CP) algorithm resulting in a preference ranking of those policies.

Keywords: water management; water policy; sustainable development; sustainability; risk management; water quality; community involvement; decision making; preference ranking.

DOI: 10.1504/IER.1999.053843

Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, 1999 Vol.1 No.2, pp.38 - 58

Published online: 13 May 2013 *

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