Multi-agent simulation for watershed water resource management

Abstract

In France, the use of the water resource is governed by European directives and national regulations. The application of these regulations is delegated to regional and local authorities for each catchment area. These fairly explicit rules result from negotiations between the different participants concerned, whose interests are essentially divergent. These negotiations very often take place without consideration of the consequences of the adoption of the rules, either at the global or individual level. Emphasising the agricultural dimension of the problem, the objective of the simulator presented here is to provide a way of testing the rules for sharing the water resources for the concrete case of an Authorised Syndicated Association (ASA) partly responsible for the management of the basin. By studying the concrete case of the management of the river Lère, we have tested the adequacy of the BDI (Beliefs, Desires, Intentions) formalism for representing the players concerned.