Water and tourism -simulating the tourist water use in the Upper Danube catchment area

The GLOWA-Danube project is establishing a decision support system called DANUBIA, which is capable of simulating the water cycle and human water use in the Upper Danube catchment area. In this context the aim of the tourism research group is to simulate the water use of the tourism industry, whereby the spatial and temporal water demand of the tourist facilities is emphasized. The model is based on a multi-agent approach with agents representing geocoded tourist facilities (= actors). These actors are capable of daily decision-making based on the perception of the simulated environment. Modelling tourist water use from a micro perspective makes it possible to display the variability of tourist water use on regional and local scales. The consideration of climate change and its effects on tourist water demand and the operability of tourist infra- and superstructure is also possible.