Integrated participatory modelling of irrigated agriculture: the case study of the reorganisation of a water management system in Italy

The paper presents an application of the new version of the 'Decision Support for Irrigatedagriculture' DSIrr designed to integrate water and agricultural policy analysis and to supportparticipatory decision process. The tool is a scenario manager for bio-economic farm modelsconsidering climatic, agronomic, hydraulic, socio-economic and environmental aspects. The paperoffers some insight on the decomposition approach adopted to integrate economic analysis at differentscales by illustrating a case study conducted in Italy to support an ex ante evaluation of a watermanagement system reorganisation. Reduce water consumption is a strategic objective which pricingpolicy cannot address given technical constraints. The replacement of the existing low-efficiencyirrigation system could be the solution, but the recover of cost creates an affordability problem.Results suggest that a dual network, integrating agricultural and rural urban sectors, represents areal challenge for the Irrigation Board since this option meets the environmental goal and pass theeconomic sustainability test.