Game theory and water resources

In game theory, potential resolutions to a conflict are found through stability analysis, based on stability definitions having precise mathematical structures. A stability definition reflects a decision maker’s behavior in a conflict or game, predicts how the game is played, and suggests the resolutions or equilibria of the dispute. Various stability definitions, reflecting different types of people with different levels of foresight, risk attitude, and knowledge of opponents’ preferences, have been proposed for resolving games. This paper reviews and illustrates six stability definitions, applicable to finite strategy strategic non-cooperative water resources games, including Nash Stability, General Metarationality (GMR), Symmetric Metarationality (SMR), Sequential Stability (SEQ), Limited-Move Stability, and Non-Myopic Stability. The introduced stability definitions are applied to an interesting and highly informative range of generic water resources games to show how analytical results vary based on the applied stability definitions. The paper suggests that game theoretic models can better simulate real conflicts if the applied stability definitions better reflect characteristics of the players. When there is a lack of information about the types of decision makers, the employment of a range of stability definitions might improve the strategic results and provide useful insights into the basic framework of the conflict and its resolution.

Non-Cooperative Stability Definitions for Strategic Analysis of Generic Water Resources Conflicts

Multi-objective optimization of water quality, pumps operation, and storage sizing of water distribution systems.

Game theory based models to analyze water conflicts in the Middle Route of the South-to-North Water Transfer Project in China

The conjunctive use of surface and groundwater resources is one alternative for optimal use of available water resources in arid and semiarid regions The optimization models proposed for conjunctive water allocation are often complicated, nonlinear, and computationally intensive, especially when different stakeholders are involved that have conflicting interests In this article, a new conflict-resolution methodology developed for the conjunctive use of surface and groundwater resources using Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) and Young Conflict-Resolution Theory (YCRT) is presented The proposed model is applied to the Tehran aquifer in the Tehran metropolitan area of Iran Stakeholders in the study area have conflicting interests related to water supply with acceptable quality, pumping costs, groundwater quality, and groundwater table fluctuations In the proposed methodology, MODFLOW and MT3D groundwater quantity and quality simulation models are linked with the NSGA-II optimization model to develop Pareto fronts among the objectives The best solutions on the Pareto fronts are then selected using YCRT The results of the proposed model show the significance of applying an integrated conflict-resolution approach to conjunctive use of surface and groundwater resources in the study area

A Conflict-Resolution Model for the Conjunctive Use of Surface and Groundwater Resources that Considers Water-Quality Issues: A Case Study

http://hercules.us.es/~mbilbao/abstracts/salazar.pdf

Coppola Emery

Papers

Application of game theory for a groundwater conflict in Mexico.