Climate Risk Informed Decision Analysis (CRIDA) collaborative water resources planning for an uncertain future

Uncertainty is not a new issue for policy makers, engineers, or scientists, especially in water management. But the increasingly visible and potentially extreme impacts of climate change, and other
difficult to predict drivers that stress water services, have highlighted the need to reassess how we
address a sequence of cascading uncertainties, caused by natural variability, and model and decision-related uncertainties associated with public needs, objectives and values. Few examples exist
of best practices for uncertainty in the planning and design of water resources management systems. Estimating future climate impacts has proven to be particularly contentious and frustrating,
and in many cases effective solutions have been largely dependent on the skills and experience of
a few individuals rather than systematic and reproducible approaches to planning.
This guidebook focuses mainly on the early feasibility stages of project planning when vulnerabilities and future water demands are assessed and options are devised and formulated by both practitioners and stakeholders in a collaborative setting for project investment decisions.