Identifying policy options and responses to water management issues through System Dynamics and fsQCA

Poor quality and scarcity of water are some of the most relevant problems for policy-makers and private sector, especially in the face of climate change. A systemic perspective is key to studying complex issues like water management and understanding how systems change in response to various inputs over time. This study aims to create a generalized, highly synthetic, and abstract model that can reproduce the key dynamics that emerge from the response to policies in water management. The characteristics of this model make it applicable independent of a specific local context. A literature review of modelling and simulation, System Dynamics (SD), and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) approaches to water management was performed, and insights were gained to recognize and understand existing gaps. The results were then assessed using fsQCA to investigate the necessary and sufficient conditions that contribute to shaping sustainable water management. A minimum common structure which highlights the common elements and their key interactions in a generic water management system was proposed. Main findings showed that the most negatively influencing dimensions of water management issues were the absence of costs related to water consumption, infrastructure obsolescence, and population growth. Implications for policy-making on sustainable water management were discussed in the conclusion.