4The development of an internet forum for long-term participatory group learning about problems and solutions to sustainable urban water supply management.M. HareSwiss Federal Institute For Environmental Science and Technology (EAWAG), Ueberlandstr. 133, Dbendorf, CH. email: matt.hare pahlmedugndaeawag.ch, N. Gilbert2, D. Medugno1, T. Asakawa School of Human Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK. email: n.gilbert t.asakawasoc.surrey.ac.uk, J. Heeb Seecon International gmbh, Bruchstr. 69, Luzern, CH , C. Pahl-Wostl1AbstractThis paper reports on the planned use of the internet in an ongoing participatory process targeted at developing solutions for the sustainable management of an urban water supply system. The foundation of our participatory methodology is face-to-face group communication within regular meetings of the principal stakeholders. During such meetings we are developing multi-media (paper-, boardgame- and computer-based) multi-agent models of the water management system in order to allow the stakeholders to explore possible management scenarios and to learn about other stakeholders often conflicting perspectives and goals. However, another forum is required for stakeholder interaction, model testing and the exchange of views, outside of the necessarily rare platform meetings. A facilitated internet forum is therefore under development. Since the stakeholder group contains a heterogeneous mix of people ranging from those experienced in using computers to those who are computer-nave and resistant to them, care must be taken when introducing a computer into the hitherto computer-free sessions. A multi-stage approach to introducing the internet-based model into our participatory process through game playing and other acclimatization methods is being developed. This paper describes this approach and provides a planned architecture for the internet forum.1. Background to problemIn a major European city, the existing supply-oriented water management policy is increasingly perceived as unsustainable. The dominant policy over the 20th century has been characterized as risk-averse worst-case planning (Tillman, 2001) in which past, increasing,past increasing demand patterns have been expected to continue and supply capacity has been built to meet a level of demand based on the upper side of possibility. This policy worked well until the 1970s in that it met the legal requirement for water supply security and, while demand increased as expected, it also met the city norm for high water quality. However, problems began when there were two contradictory responses to a particularly dry summer in 1976 in which demand peaked to near supply-capacity levels. One the one hand, this crisis resulted in demand falling in an unprecedented fashion due to increased water saving as well as a general decline in water-using industries. On the other hand, it led to the water utility increasing supply capacity to avoid future problems. The result was that whilst demand fell, supply capacity increased to the point that capacity is now approximately 2.5 times daily demand. Such over-capacity increases the standing time of the water in the supply network and therefore puts at risk the sustainability of the hitherto high standards in water quality that the city enjoyshas enjoyed. Additionally, the city politicians,politicians who are faced with a large city budget deficit have begun to reduce the credit available to the water utility for infrastructure. The water utility and the city as a whole are therefore in the position of having to investigate new ways of managing the system that can resolve the stakeholders conflicting goals of maintaining water security and quality, saving money and saving water. 2. Multi-staged, multi-media modelling within a participatory processA participatory discussion platform has been established which incorporates the principal stakeholders involved in the citys water management system (water utility; politicians; consumers; and manufacturers). The goals of this participatory process include the exploration of more efficient management strategies in response to possible demand scenarios and to increase communication and the sharing of perspectives among the various stakeholders.stakeholders. A multi-staged, multi-media model-building-as-learning (Lane, 1992) approach has been adopted that is tailored for long termlong-term stakeholder participation and for the introduction of computational and internet-based models into computer-nave groups. In Stage 1, the stakeholders own mental models (Doyle/Ford, 1998) of the system, its perceived problems, their goals and possible scenarios are elicited and the stakeholders then discuss paper versions of these models as a group. In Stage 2, these mental models are converted into a single multi-agent model see (Gilbert/Troitzsch. 2000). for definition. in the form of a board game wi