The management of Lake Maggiore: Conflict analysis and the price of noncooperation (Q802476)

The problem of the rational management of Lake Maggiore (a multipurpose reservoir in Northern Italy), is considered in this paper. First, the historical management is analyzed and it is shown why the downstream users do not cooperate with the upstream users of the lake. Then the best non-cooperative solution is found and proved to be quite superior to the historical one. Finally, the best cooperative solution is obtained and compared with the non-cooperative one. The price of such non-cooperation is very high, as usually in natural resources management problems. The analysis also points out some simple suggestions for overall optimality and conflict resolution.