Integrated Approaches Within Water Resource Planning and Management in Australia-Theory and Application

This chapter overviews the dimensions and challenges in integrative approaches in water resource decision making. Integrative research is central to tackling real-world, complex science and social-political problems, where acceptable solutions often cross disciplinary boundaries. Recent literature on integration theory and the dimensions and challenges of integration are reviewed. Literature on translating integrated approaches from theory to practice is synthesized. We then use three case studies, all from the Murray-Darling Basin, to demonstrate different approaches to integration, where each example sought to achieve a different purpose and had different scales of application. We conclude the chapter with some lessons learned and some needs to consider for future integrative research projects.