K8. Integrated assessments in the context of urban systems

Integrated Assessments aim to integrate knowledge to facilitate learning and decision making processes. The aim of this type of assessment is to support decision and policy making, management and governance. This is an activity that is increasingly utilized to address and explore challenges in the urban water space such as alternative supply and urban water service delivery options assessment at the macro scale (i.e. evaluation against multiple criteria); systems performance analysis to support better water management; socio-technical definition and analysis of governance arrangements for new urban water regimes; and the long term transition of the urban water sector towards a greater contribution from alternative technologies and moving towards water sensitive cities Such assessments require a combination of modelling tools covering several topics including complex systems science modelling, hydrological modelling, software engineering, decision support science, and social science and participatory methods.