Decision support tools for groundwater comanagement

Growing demand for water, exacerbated by climate change, is increasing dependence on groundwater in the southern Mediterranean countries, especially in semi-arid and arid regions (Kuper et al., 2016). Morocco has been facing six consecutive years of drought and water security has become the backbone of any climate resilience strategy for all economic sectors, especially agriculture. Some irrigated cultures like olive, citrus orchards and horticulture have suffered and led to water use conflicts and greater inequality (the wealthier are able to pump deeper). In this context, collaborative governance can be seen as one possible solution to manage complex socio-ecological systems such as groundwater systems.As part of the BRIDGE research collective on co-design of climate and water smart decision support tools and frameworks (Vadez and Bossuet, 2021; Vadez et al, 2023; Dolinska et al, 2023), this ClimBeR research activity relates to building the capacity of local stakeholders (farmers, administration, private companies, associations, etc.) to better co-manage groundwater resources in a sustainable and equitable manner.The establishment of effective collaborative processes remains a major challenge due to the specificities of groundwater ("invisibility”, less easily available data, etc.).Researchers from CIRAD have collaborated since 2022 with Tunisian partners to co-develop user-friendly groundwater co-management decision tools towards the development and implementation of climate resilient groundwater management strategies (Hassenforder, 2023): Enabling conditions for a multi-stakeholder dialogue, Factsheets of Groundwater management models, The serious game Ground-WAG-Er, science-policy dialogues.