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Achieving the objectives of sustainable development in water and agri-food systems requires the utilisation of decision-support tools in stakeholder-driven processes to construct and simulate various scenarios and evaluate the outcomes of associated policy interventions. While it is common practice to involve stakeholders in participatory modelling processes, their comprehensive documentation and the lessons learned remain scarce. In this paper, we share our experience of engaging stakeholders throughout the entire system dynamics modelling process. We draw on two projects implemented in the Volta River Basin, West Africa, to understand the dynamics of water and agri-food systems under changing environmental and socioeconomic conditions. We outline eight key insights and lessons as practical guides derived from each stage of the participatory modelling process, including the pre-workshop stage, problem definition, model conceptualization, simulation model formulation, model testing and verification, and policy design and evaluation. Our findings demonstrate that stakeholders can actively contribute to all phases of the system dynamics modelling process, including parameter estimation, sensitivity analysis, and numerical simulation experiments. However, we encountered notable challenges, including the time-intensive nature of the process, the struggle to reach a consensus on the modelled problem, and the difficulty of translating the conceptual model into a simulation model using stock and flow diagrams – all of which were addressed through a structured facilitation process. While the projects were anchored in the specific context of West Africa, the key lessons and insights highlighted have broader significance, particularly for researchers employing PSDM in regions characterised by multifaceted human-environmental systems and where stakeholder involvement is crucial for holistic understanding and effective policy interventions. This paper contributes practical guidance for future efforts with participatory modelling, particularly in regions worldwide grappling with sustainable development challenges in water and agri-food systems, and where stakeholder involvement is crucial for holistic understanding of the multiple challenges and for designing effective policy interventions. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The River Torrens Catchment in Adelaide has suffered from poor water quality and flooding for decades. To address these challenges, a green infrastructure project, specifically a Linear Park, was created within the catchment. Although the project has functioned reasonably well since its implementation, its complex nature poses several management challenges. Despite the scale of this project, there is little scholarly literature available. Hence, to analyse these management challenges, this paper reviews the original project documentation, as well as regulations and policy documents together with findings from interviews with key project informants. The aim is to investigate the key drivers for implementation; the major stakeholders involved; and the challenges emerging from the multidimensional attributes of the project. The challenges relate to the inconsistent and informal management structure, the involvement of multiple stakeholders, and pressure from surrounding development. The challenges are further grouped under four main themes, including communication and collaboration, project design goals, institutional and political frameworks, and planning and development regulations. This paper argues that green governance is the key to the successful implementation and management of sustainable green infrastructure projects. The findings from this case study can inform policymakers, planners and researchers to propose appropriate scenarios to manage urban stormwater and to reclaim neglected waterways. • Linear parks have emerged as an increasingly valuable green space typology. • The morphology of a linear park can present complex issues relating to governance. • The River Torrens Linear Park exhibits such complexities. • Green governance is essential for sustainable development of linear parks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Basin water ecological compensation is an effective means of coordinating environmental protection and economic development and promoting sustainable development. A reasonable compensation interval (the value range of the compensation standard) is the basis for final pricing. At present, the calculation method of the compensation interval has not been unified in the current research, and it is rarely considered comprehensively from the perspective of both parties of compensation. Based on the perspectives of upstream water resources suppliers and downstream water resources consumers, this paper proposes a water ecological compensation interval accounting method based on emergy analysis theory and water ecological footprint method. From the perspective of the supply side, the remaining ecological economic system services value supplied by the upstream area is taken as the lower limit; from the perspective of the consumer side, the value of ecological economic system services actually occupied by downstream areas is taken as the upper limit. Taking the Qingyi River Basin as an example, the results show that there is a serious ecological deficit in the lower reaches of the Qingyi River Basin, and reasonable compensation needs to be given to the supplier Xinzheng City; the accounting method based on dual perspectives is better than traditional. The method is more precise and greatly shortens the value range of the compensation standard. This study provides a novel and complete ecological compensation interval accounting method, which provides a more accurate and reasonable reference for the determination of ecological compensation standards in the basin, and helps the government to improve and implement the ecological compensation mechanism. • The study proposes a new quantification method of watershed compensation interval. • Different amounts of spillover value from different perspectives. • Lower Qingyi River has a high ecological deficit. • Compensation interval based on dual perspective is more accurate. • Compensation interval difference is mainly affected by downstream. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optimization of the industry structure is important for the sustainable development for developing countries, e.g. China. The inexact stochastic multiple objective programming (ISMOP) which integrates stochastic programming, interval linear programming, and multiple objective programming was applied to analyze the optimization of industrial structure based on water environmental carrying capacity in Huai River Basin within Shandong Province (HRBSP). ISMOP can effectively solve the uncertainty existing in the multiple-objective optimization model and provide the information of development patterns of different industrial sectors. Results showed that the growth rates of output values from secondary industries under different q i values in the planning stage (2010–2020) will be almost 8%, and the total amounts of COD and NH 3 –N discharge will reduce by at least 65% from 2010 to 2020 in HRBSP. In term of the secondary industrial structure, the coal, paper-making and food processing industries, as the traditional backbone industries but with high risk of water pollution, should be reduced gradually; the beverage and textile industries should be strictly limited; and conversely, the new industries, such as metallurgy and construction material industries, should be allowed to maintain the rapid development. In the context of the aquatic environment protection in the basin level, the results based on ISMOP are useful for making policies to balance the economic development and water pollutant prevention within the Huai River Basin and other river basins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of China's urban agglomerations has been accompanied by enormous ecological costs. Based on the perspective of ecological constraints, this paper constructed a "quantity-efficiency-structure" evaluation framework for sustainable urban development. Taking the π-shaped Curve Area in the Yellow River Basin as the study area, the improved ecological footprint model and the information entropy method were adopted to evaluate the sustainable development potential (SDP) of the 17 cities in the Area from three aspects: ecological supply and demand (quantity comparison), ecological well-being performance (efficiency assessment), and ecological carrying structure (structure evaluation). From 2005 to 2019, ecological constraints of the three aspects exhibited obvious east-west and north-south spatial heterogeneity and even formed spatial clusters. Through multivariate systematic correlation analysis, openness degree, economic level, population, urbanization rate, industrial structure, scientific innovation, energy consumption, and the role of government were found to have different effects on the SDP and its three aspects. Given the results of the "quantity-efficiency-structure" evaluation and the influencing mechanism of SDP, cities in Area were grouped into weak sustainable, weak unsustainable, strong sustainable, and strong unsustainable types using systematic clustering method, and development suggestions were proposed accordingly. This study was expected to provide new ideas for studying sustainable development and policy proposals for urban development in the Curve Area. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many companies around the world need to assess water environmental risks in accordance with sustainable development goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment, the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) water program, and also their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. Although companies have been requested to voluntarily evaluate their water risks and provide information thereon, the water quality risk in river basins is difficult to assess owing to insufficient monitoring information. This paper proposes the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology - Standardized Hydrology-based AssessmeNt tool for chemical Exposure Load (AIST-SHANEL) model as a river water quality simulation model that can be employed for chemical risk assessment and evaluation of the effects of use of a company's consumer products on river basins. AIST-SHANEL is the only unsteady analysis model that estimates spatial and temporal chemical concentrations and assesses water quality within river basins by point/non-point emission of chemical substances. To evaluate the efficacy of AIST-SHANEL, a case study focused on the surfactant linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS), found in the detergents of widely used health care products, was conducted. The water risk assessment was performed in three Japanese river basins with different watershed characteristics: Tama River in urban Tokyo with high sewerage penetration rate, Nikko River in urban Nagoya with a low sewerage penetration rate, and the nonurban None River with no sewerage. In Tama River, the LAS river water concentrations were found to be strongly influenced by seasonal variations as well as the flow rate associated with dilution and temperature-induced biodegradation. Their concentrations in Nikko River were strongly affected by flooding, indicating that the influence on their transport through the drainage channel was due more to low sewage levels than temperature-induced biodegradation. In None River, the LAS river water concentrations were only slightly affected by dilution. The river sediment concentrations of LAS in the three river basins showed mild seasonal variations. The 95th percentile of river water concentrations, predicted environmental concentration (PEC), at the most downstream and maximum concentration grids in the three river basins were 4.5 and 51.2 mg/m3 for Tama River, 30 and 58.6 mg/m3 for Nikko River, and 0.15 mg/m3 for None River. Neither of the PECs nor maximum values at these grids exceeded the predicted no-effect concentration (PNEC) of LAS (270 mg/m3), suggesting minimal ecological risk in these river basins over the year for all target river basins due to LAS. Furthermore, we analyzed a scenario in which LAS was substituted with the highly biodegradable alcohol ethoxylates (AE) for corporate self-management measures in Nikko River with only a few sewers, and therefore only a low risk. The AIST-SHANEL model has useful and widespread application with no need for monitoring by companies; as long as the relevant watershed characteristics can be obtained, water risk assessments of chemical substances can be performed for any river basin in the world. • A simulation model was developed for global water environmental risk assessment. • Spatio-temporal chemical concentrations were estimated by point/non-point emission. • The ranges of chemical concentrations were estimated for the studied river basins. • Estimated concentrations can be used to evaluate water risks without monitoring. • The proposed model can simulate river water quality in any basin around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]