We present and test a conceptual and methodological approach for interdisciplinary sustainability assessments of water governance systems based on what we call the sustainability wheel. The approach combines transparent identification of sustainability principles, their regional contextualization through sub-principles (indicators), and the scoring of these indicators through deliberative dialogue within an interdisciplinary team of researchers, taking into account their various qualitative and quantitative research results. The approach was applied to a sustainability assessment of a complex water governance system in the Swiss Alps. We conclude that the applied approach is advantageous for structuring complex and heterogeneous knowledge, gaining a holistic and comprehensive perspective on water sustainability, and communicating this perspective to stakeholders.

Modeling of future water systems at the regional scale is a difficult task due to the complexity of current structures (multiple competing water uses, multiple actors, formal and informal rules) both temporally and spatially. Representing this complexity in the modeling process is a challenge that can be addressed by an interdisciplinary and holistic approach. The assessment of the water system of the Crans-Montana-Sierre area (Switzerland) and its evolution until 2050 were tackled by combining glaciological, hydrogeological, and hydrological measurements and modeling with the evaluation of water use through documentary, statistical and interview-based analyses. Four visions of future regional development were co-produced with a group of stakeholders and were then used as a basis for estimating future water demand. The comparison of the available water resource and the water demand at monthly time scale allowed us to conclude that for the four scenarios socioeconomic factors will impact on the future water systems more than climatic factors. An analysis of the sustainability of the current and future water systems based on four visions of regional development allowed us to identify those scenarios that will be more sustainable and that should be adopted by the decision-makers. The results were then presented to the stakeholders through five key messages. The challenges of communicating the results in such a way with stakeholders are discussed at the end of the article.

MontanAqua: Tackling Water Stress in the Alps. Water Management Options in the Crans-Montana-Sierre Region (Valais) GAIA 25/3 (2016): 191-193 How the Project Was OrganizedClimate and socio-economic changes will alter the distribution of water resources and water use in the coming decades, particularly in dry Alpine areas with dynamic economic, tourism, and urban development. Coping with these changes will require a fundamental rethink of current water management arrangements. Against this background, the overall objective of the MontanAqua project 1 was to develop, in cooperation with regional stakeholders, sustainable water management strategies to cope with possible future water scarcity in the Crans-Montana-Sierre (Valais, Switzerland) region. To achieve this goal, we studied water-related problems and solutions from a transdisciplinary perspective ( figure 1, p. 192). The research was divided into three work packages (WPs) and one synthesis package. In WP1, available water resources were measured and modelled in and for the different altitudinal zones. In WP2, we evaluated water use including drinking water, energy production, agriculture, viticulture, and tourism. Decision-making related to water use was studied in WP3 through an analysis of the socio-economic structure from the communes to the canton. The synthesis package investigated the links between the three WPs, created methods for inter-and transdisciplinary knowledge production, and designed and organized processes of stakeholder involvement.

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