The Need for Integrating Governance, Operations, and Social Dynamics into Water Supply/Distribution Modelling

Water systems in the US are experiencing increasing challenges because of poor governance, unsustainable fiscal policies, an aging workforce, new environmental regulations, and concerns over environmental justice. These challenges will only increase if the specific constraints and barriers to system viability are not first identified and then translated into new policies and best management practices to ensure system sustainability, reliability, resilience, and equity of services. This paper proposes a methodology to accomplish this objective that integrates agent-based models, water distribution models, and sustainability performance models within a larger system dynamics framework.