review · Sustainability
Water supply and demand management requires a holistic understanding across social, environmental, hydrological, and economic sub-systems. System dynamics modelling offers an effective approach by evaluating biophysical and socio-economic systems simultaneously. An analysis of literature regarding its application reveals notable methodological trends and operational gaps. While 70 percent of evaluated studies utilised stock flow diagrams for quantitative assessments, only 58 percent adopted causal loop diagrams for problem conceptualisation. Furthermore, stakeholder engagement was featured in only 36 percent of studies, and climate change considerations appeared in roughly half. Only 12 percent coupled system dynamics with advanced quantitative models or optimisation algorithms. Practical measures highlighted across the literature include reducing per capita consumption, expanding public conservation campaigns, reusing treated wastewater, adopting drip irrigation, selecting drought-tolerant crops, and enforcing groundwater extraction limits.
Balancing urban and agricultural water needs under growing climate stress demands integrated planning tools. By pinpointing systematic blind spots in current water modelling, such as the exclusion of stakeholder input and optimisation algorithms, this analysis guides planners towards building more realistic models. This directly informs effective policies, such as groundwater protection rules and efficient agricultural practices.
The findings can inform the design of decision-support software used by municipal water utilities, agricultural planners, and environmental policymakers. While algorithms such as particle swarm optimisation and genetic algorithms are identified as valuable complements to system dynamics, the underlying work is a secondary literature review. The operational tools and combined modelling frameworks therefore remain in early-stage academic research rather than near-market deployment.
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Water supply and demand management (WSDM) is essential for developing sustainable cities and societies. WSDM is only effective when tackled from the perspective of a holistic system understanding that considers social, environmental, hydrological, and economic (SEHEc) sub-systems. System dynamics modeling (SDM) is recommended by water resource researchers as it models the biophysical and socio-economic systems simultaneously. This study presents a comprehensive literature review of SDM applications in sustainable WSDM. The reviewed articles were methodologically analyzed considering SEHEc sub-systems and the type of modeling approach used. This study revealed that problem conceptualization using the causal loop diagram (CLD) was performed in only 58% of the studies. Moreover, 70% of the reviewed articles used the stock flow diagram (SFD) to perform a quantitative system analysis. Furthermore, stakeholder engagement plays a significant role in understanding the core issues and divergent views and needs of users, but it was incorporated by only 36% of the studies. Although climate change significantly affects water management strategies, only 51% of the reviewed articles considered it. Although the scenario analysis is supported by simulation models, they further require the optimization models to yield optimal key parameter values. One noticeable finding is that only 12% of the articles used quantitative models to complement SDM for the decision-making process. The models included agent-based modeling (ABM), Bayesian networking (BN), analytical hierarchy approach (AHP), and simulation optimization multi-objective optimization (MOO). The solution approaches included the genetic algorithm (GA), particle swarm optimization (PSO), and the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II). The key findings for the sustainable development of water resources included the per capita water reduction, water conservation through public awareness campaigns, the use of treated wastewater, the adoption of efficient irrigation practices including drip irrigation, the cultivation of low-water-consuming crops in water-stressed regions, and regulations to control the overexploitation of groundwater. In conclusion, it is established that SDM is an effective tool for devising strategies that enable sustainable water supply and demand management.
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DOI: 10.3390/su15086826
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