An Agent-Based Simulation for Water Sharing Between Different Users

Water sharing has become a serious problem in France. One of the objectives of 1992 and 2000 directives proposed by the European Union was to reduce both the frequency and the extent of water conflicts through the establishment of multilateral negotiations, where different public and private interests can be represented in a structured institutional environment. In France, many negotiations take place at local level between farmers, water supplies, public services and environmental lists to allocate water resources between users. We suggest that Agent-Based Modelling (ABM) using a multi-agent approach could help negotiations between different players by showing the consequences of water allocation rules and taking in consideration the players' respective attitudes and their ability to change their behaviour.