Resilient water infrastructure partnerships in institutionally complex systems face challenging supply and financial risk tradeoffs

This research explores infrastructure investment partnership design for water supply systems, combining water resource system ensemble modeling with multiobjective intelligent search. The study reveals severe tradeoffs between water supply deliveries, partnership size, and financial risks. Hydroclimatic variability and institutional complexity create uncertainty in water supply benefits and partner risk, threatening partnership viability. The multiobjective intelligent search framework designs partnerships with significantly higher water supply benefits and lower financial risk compared to traditional methods. The findings have global implications for enhancing climate resilience and financial stability of water supply systems.

A. L. Hamilton, P. M. Reed, R. S. Gupta, H. B. Zeff, G. W. Characklis