A WEB-GIS platform for water resource management. The information and communication technologies for environmental sustainability.

Water is strategic but also highly vulnerable natural resource, this because the increasing demand from multiple uses, in many cases competing amongst them, seems to influence the concepts of sustainability of the exploitation. In this context, many are the mathematical models known in bibliography and the approach of the proposed model is focused towards a natural integration of the two processes of evaluation and management of the available water resource, in an operating context that is shared amongst managers, users and the local administration concerned. From the operational point of view, the WRME project (Water Resources Management and Evaluation) is an integrated Decision Support System (DSS) that is not only a platform to exchange information and assessments, but is a tool for conflict resolution, in the management of water resources, and consensus reaching among all participants in the decisional processes. So the “top-down” approach has been replaced with a “bottom-up” approach where all stakeholders become decision makers themselves. Innovations do not only concern the philosophical aspects of management, but also technological aspects. In fact, for the development of this integrated tool a considerable effort in adapting existing technologies and developing new capabilities has been required, especially in the integration of modeling engines in a single GIS platform available on the WEB.