Degree of Master of

The integration of ecological and economic modeling to manage

water quality problems in Australia
Robinson (1997) in his article “The integration of ecological and economic modeling to manage water quality problems” gives an example of a project with successful application of the explicit ecological simulation model for evaluation of the potential economic impacts of policy interventions on the water quality of the Bremen river in Australia. The author explains that eutrophication being one of the most urgent problems in Australian coastal waterways can lead to degradation of ecosystem services and economic and social losses in future.

CEU eTD Collection
The main result of this project was development of economic model by using extended input-output data base incorporating a waste stream and effluent discharge sector. Policy interventions evaluated by this model gave information about the regional economic costs of biological oxygen demand (BOD) reduction in the river over long-term planning (Robinson 1997).

4. STREAM instrument: use of a spatial distributed water balance

model
The STREAM instrument is the next remarkable example of the application of modeling in environmental science. Aerts and Kriek in their article “STREAM (Spatial tools for river basins and environment and analysis of management options): set up and requirements” provide the detailed description of this instrument. They point out that STREAM uses a spatial distributed water balance model for simulating the water balance in
larger river basins. The feasibility of this model relates to the fact that it provides a profound analysis of the impacts of climate changes and land use changes on the fresh water hydrology of a river basin. It is not surprising that STREAM instrument has been applied with success for several river basins such as the Rhine, Ganges/Brahmaputra, Amudarya, Yangtze and others (Aerts and Kriek 1999).
The core of the STREAM is a GIS-based rainfall runoff model demonstrating the simulation of river discharges and water availability in river basins. Furthermore, this instrument puts forward five spatial data output types, i.e. potential and actual evapotranspiration, soil water regime, aridity index, runoff regime, and snow cover. In addition, STREAM provides a scenario analysis enabling stakeholders to reveal main implications from the model simulation including all output types.
Therefore, they concluded that STREAM instrument has acknowledged being a complex and integral approach for management of river basins (Aerts and Kriek 1999).

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