Bayesian Belief Network to support conflict analysis for groundwater protection: The case of the Apulia region

Water resource management is often characterized by conflicts, as a result of the heterogeneity of interests associated with a shared resource. Many water conflicts arise on a global scale and, in particular, an increasing level of conflicts can be observed in the Mediterranean basin, characterized by water scarcity. In the present work, in order to assist the conflict analysis process, and thus outline a proper groundwater management, stakeholders were involved in the process and suitable tools were used in a Mediterranean area (the Apulia region, in Italy). In particular, this paper seeks to elicit and structure farmers' mental models influencing their decision over the main water source for irrigation. The more crucial groundwater is for farmers' objectives, the more controversial is the groundwater protection strategy. Bayesian Belief Networks were developed to simulate farmers' behavior with regard to groundwater management and to assess the impacts of protection strategy. These results have been used to calculate the conflict degree in the study area, derived from the introduction of policies for the reduction of groundwater exploitation for irrigation purposes. The less acceptable the policy is, the more likely it is that conflict will develop between farmers and the Regional Authority. The results of conflict analysis were also used to contribute to the debate concerning potential conflict mitigation measures. The approach adopted in this work has been discussed with a number of experts in groundwater management policies and irrigation management, and its main strengths and weaknesses have been identified. Increasing awareness of the existence of potential conflicts and the need to deal with them can be seen as an interesting initial shift in the Apulia region's water management regime, which is still grounded in merely technical approaches.

► BBN was implemented to model farmers' behavior in irrigation management. ► BBN allowed to assess farmers' acceptability of groundwater protection policies. ► The level of acceptability enabled the level of conflict to be measured. ► A GIS-based decision support tool was developed for analyzing potential conflicts. ► The GIS-based decision support tool was also used to define a map of conflicts.