Abstract

This talk will discuss the role of data and modelling in policy support around food and water through a discussion of the approaches pioneered by the Challenge Programme on Water and Food projects in the Andes system of basins. I will focus on the role of modelling, alongside theoretical developments and field science, in providing policy-relevant understanding and also highlight the challenges of modelling in data-poor but problem-rich developing country environments. I will discuss the development of the WaterWorld Policy Support System (www.policysupport.org/waterworld), its biophysical basis and innovations as well as the role it plays in the understanding of hydrological ecosystem services and the negotiation of benefit sharing mechanisms for water (such as payments for ecosystem services schemes) at sites throughout the tropics. Though there are risks to making models like WaterWorld available and accessible for non-hydrologists and non-modellers to use in such policy contexts, there are also considerable benefits in bridging science with application and filling some of the informational vacuums in which policies or management decisions sometimes have to be made.