Large-scale water resources management within the framework of GLOWA-Danube-The water supply model

The water supply model links the various physical models determining water quality and availability on the one hand and the so-called “Actor” models calculating water demand on the other by determining the actual water supply and the costs related, which underlie both technical and physical constraints (e.g., existing infrastructure and its capacity, water availability and quality, geology, elevation, etc.). In reality, water supply within the study is organised through a three-tiered structure: long-distance, regional, and a multitude of community-based suppliers. In order to model this system in which each supply company defines its own optimum, an agent-based modelling approach (implemented using JAVA) was chosen. This approach is novel to modelling water supply in that not only water supply infrastructure but more importantly the decision makers (communities, water supply companies) are represented as generalised objects, capable of performing actions following rules that are determined by the class they belong to.