Supporting deliberation processes within complex decisions in natural resources management

Decisions regarding water management issues are by nature complex; they involvebalancing the three interconnected pillars of sustainability: social welfare, economicneeds and the needs of an ever-changing environment. Moreover, such decisions mayinclude controversial or poorly understood issues, such as the role of equity orproperty rights, as well as conflicts of interest. Due to the uncertainty about facts ofmatter or simply due to differences in goals, different stakeholders (people or interestgroups that are directly affected by or affecting a management problem) often havequite different perspectives on what should be done. Only by taking into account thesedifferent perspectives and trying to balance the needs of society, environment andeconomics, can a manager reach any type of sustainable decision: one generallyacceptable and beneficial to all sectors.