Factsheet: Resource Flow Modelling
Definition
In general a resource flow model represents the flow of matter in a system within a defined time period of a spatial unit. It is not geographically explicit.
Matter means any chemical substance like Pb or any chemical compound like pollutants, nutrients, water etc. or any material like waste, energy etc..
By system the following is meant:
a) functional system boundaries like a technical system (e.g. company or water supply system) or natural system (e.g. natural water system, surface water, ground water and/or reservoirs) or combinations
b) spatial system boundaries (e.g. administrative criteria like region, county, river basin)
The model includes input and output places of matter, calculates the flow of matter between places, includes the treatment or changing of matter at a place, calculates the impacts of the treatment of matter of the places, takes into account factors which affect the flow of matter and takes into account characteristics of places which affect the treatment of matter. “Umberto” is a software to elaborate such a resource flow model and provides an assessment tool http://www.umberto.de/en/home/.
Application objectives
The objective is to analyse the current situation in a test site and to characterise water stress in general in the test site. Therefore the available amount and quality of water and the demand of water from different sectors (domestic, industrial, agricultural) will be calculated. A set of indicators will be calculated and aggregated to generate the water stress index of a specific test site. The aims are to compare the water stress index of different test sites and to identify differences in the evaluation of the water stress between sectors and stakeholder(s) groups.
Pertinent participation process phase(s)
1- Starting organization
2- Actors analysis, context
3- Diagnostic of the current situation (taking into account the “perceived” water stress of different stakeholder and of different sectors in a test site)
4- Search of solutions
5- Implementation, evaluation (assess the effects of management options)
Application method
Not specified.
Application example(s)
The software is being used for the calculation of the inventory analysis and their assessment (mainly for Life Cycle Assessment). As far as the author knows it has not been used for modelling water stress or a similar issue.
Example tools
"Umberto" is software developed by a research institute in Germany. Licences need to be paid. It allows exporting results but provides only a few possibilities to link it to other models or databases. A huge list of similar software tools exists, some don’t include an assessment, some don’t provide upstream calculation, and some don’t support a hierarchical network/model structure.
AquaStress contact(s)
Contact: Sonja Schmidt, University of Osnabrück (sschmidt@usf.uni-osnabrueck.de).
Reference
For Umberto see: http://www.umberto.de/en/home/.
