Research trends are also on-going, striving to support policy developments and examining how scientific findings and recommendations could be best taken on board by policy-makers and water managers within the forthcoming years.
Policies and policy development are first analysed from the systems theory viewpoint and the ideas behind some proof-of-concept software systems supporting policy development are then introduced.
With the aim of supporting policy development and protecting the natural environment at relevant hotspots, a scenario study was conducted that concerned not only land-use change, but also the resulting effects on erosion and deposition.
In the discussion we argue that to be relevant research efforts aimed at supporting policy development for multifunctional agriculture cannot concentrate on filling gaps in knowledge and technology alone, but need to concern the process of utilization of knowledge as well.
While it is clear that GCC countries have ambitions for adoption of renewable energy in their power sectors, a more structured approach is needed for supporting policy development.
