Methodology proposal for the life cycle sustainability assessment applied to retrofitting in a local context

In the European context of upgrading the housing stock energy performance, multiple barriers hinder the wide uptake of sustainable retrofitting practices. Moreover, some of these may imply negative effects often disregarded. Policy makers need to identify how to increase and improve retrofitting practices from the comprehensive point of view of sustainability. None of the existing assessment tools addresses all the issues relevant for sustainable development in a local situation from a life cycle perspective. Life cycle sustainability assessment methodology, or LCSA, analyzes environmental and socioeconomic impacts. The environmental part is quite developed, but the socioeconomic aspect is still challenging. This work proposes socioeconomic criteria to be included in a LCSA to assess retrofitting works in the specific context of Brussels-Capital Region. LCSA feasibility and challenging methodology aspects are discussed.

Social Indicators in the Sustainable Refurbishment: Calculating Quality of Life Indicator in a Residential Building in Málaga

How can we measure ‘quality of life’? The sustainable refurbishment goes beyond strictly energy aspects. Sustainability indicators are needed to facilitate data collection and to provide information which does not require too time-consuming calculations. Thus, you can offer an idea of the extent and quality of the rehabilitation before starting the project and, also, the obtained results can be evaluated in an agile way after the refurbishment. From a list of social indicators gathered from different methods, sustainability assessment tools and International and European standards, three social indicators are proposed: Users Satisfaction, Participation Agreement and Quality of Life. This paper shows the development of Quality of Life social indicator, the more closely related to the main objectives of Researchand Development Project “Sustainable Refurbishment”: improving energy efficiency and wellbeing of users in existing residential buildings. Finally, this social indicator is applied to a real case study in Málaga (Spain).

Consequences of different meteorological scenarios in the environmental impact assessment of tritium in air

The environmental impact of systems managing large (kg) tritium amount represents a public scrutiny issue for the next coming fusion facilities as ITER and DEMO. Furthermore, potentially new dose limits imposed by international regulations (ICRP) shall impact next coming devices designs and the overall costs of fusion technology deployment. Refined environmental tritium dose impact assessment schemes are then overwhelming. Detailed assessments can be procured from the knowledge of the real boundary conditions of the primary tritium discharge phase into atmosphere (low levels) and into soils. Lagrangian dispersion models using real-time meteorological and topographic data provide a strong refinement. Advance simulation tools are being developed in this sense. The tool integrates a numerical model output records from European Centre for Medium range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) with a lagrangian atmospheric dispersion model (FLEXPART). The composite model ECMWF/FLEXTRA results can be coupled with tritium dose secondary phase pathway assessment tools. Nominal tritium discharge operational reference and selected incidental ITER-like plant systems tritium form source terms have been assumed. The realtime daily data and mesh-refined records together with lagrangian dispersion model approach provide accurate results for doses to population by inhalation or ingestion in the secondary phase

Impacts and adaptive capacity as drivers for prioritizing agricultural adaptation to climate change in Europe

In the face of likely climate change impacts policy makers at different spatial scales need access to assessment tools that enable informed policy instruments to be designed. Recent scientific advances have facilitated the development of improved climate projections, but it remains to be seen whether these are translated into effective adaptation strategies. This paper uses existing databases on climate impacts on European agriculture and combines them with an assessment of adaptive capacity to develop an interdisciplinary approach for prioritising policies. It proposes a method for identifying relevant policies for different EU countries that are representative of various agroclimatic zones. Our analysis presents a framework for integrating current knowledge of future climate impacts with an understanding of the underlying socio-economic, agricultural and environmental traits that determine a region’s capacity for adapting to climate change.

Methodological Proposal for Teamwork Evaluation in the field of training Project Management.

Teamwork, is one of the abilities that today is highly valued in the professional arena with a great importance for various personal and interpersonal skills associated with it. In this context, the Technical University of Madrid, is developing a coordinated educational innovation project, which main objective is to develop methodological and assessment tools for the acquisition of personal skills necessary to improve the employability of graduates and their skills for project management. Within this context, this paper proposes a methodology composed of various activities and indicators, as well as specific assessment instruments linked to the teamwork competence. Through a series of systematic steps it was allowed the design of an instrument and construction of a scale for measuring the competence of teamwork. The practical application of the methodology has been carried out in Projects lectures from different Schools of Engineering at the Technical University of Madrid, which results are presented in this document as a pilot experience. Results show the various aspects and methods that teachers should consider in evaluating the competence of the work, including analysis of the quality of results, through reliability and construct validity. On the other hand, show the advantages of applying this methodology in the field of project management teaching.

Nanotechnology for high frequency communications: nitrides and graphene

The achievement of higher frequencies (HF) and the reduction of energy consumption, to improve sensing, communication and computation, involve the continued scaling down to the nanometer level. This scaling is enabled by of innovative device designs, improved processing technologies and assessment tools, and new material structures. In this work, we have used all these factors to demonstrate state-of-the-art HF devices in two materials with quite different electronic properties: wide semiconductor bandgap III-nitrides for resonators and power amplifiers; and graphene, a zero bandgap material expected to revolutionize low noise and HF flexible electronics. Some issues faced during their development will be discussed during the talk.

Systems and technologies for objective evaluation of technical skills in laparoscopic surgery

Minimally invasive surgery is a highly demanding surgical approach regarding technical requirements for the surgeon, who must be trained in order to perform a safe surgical intervention. Traditional surgical education in minimally invasive surgery is commonly based on subjective criteria to quantify and evaluate surgical abilities, which could be potentially unsafe for the patient. Authors, surgeons and associations are increasingly demanding the development of more objective assessment tools that can accredit surgeons as technically competent. This paper describes the state of the art in objective assessment methods of surgical skills. It gives an overview on assessment systems based on structured checklists and rating scales, surgical simulators, and instrument motion analysis. As a future work, an objective and automatic assessment method of surgical skills should be standardized as a means towards proficiency-based curricula for training in laparoscopic surgery and its certification.

A novel motion tracking system for evaluation of functional rehabilitation of the upper limbs

Upper limb function impairment is one of the most common sequelae of central nervous system injury, especially in stroke patients and when spinal cord injury produces tetraplegia. Conventional assessment methods cannot provide objective evaluation of patient performance and the tiveness of therapies. The most common assessment tools are based on rating scales, which are inefficient when measuring small changes and can yield subjective bias. In this study, we designed an inertial sensor-based monitoring system composed of five sensors to measure and analyze the complex movements of the upper limbs, which are common in activities of daily living. We developed a kinematic model with nine degrees of freedom to analyze upper limb and head movements in three dimensions. This system was then validated using a commercial optoelectronic system. These findings suggest that an inertial sensor-based motion tracking system can be used in patients who have upper limb impairment through data integration with a virtual reality-based neuroretation system.

Definición e implementación de métricas objetivas para la evaluación funcional del miembro superior: aplicación a población con lesión medular cervical

En personas que padecen una Lesión Medular cervical, la función de los miembros superiores se ve afectada en mayor o menor medida, dependiendo fundamentalmente del nivel de la lesión y de la severidad de la misma. El déficit en la función del miembro superior hace que la autonomía e independencia de las personas se vea reducida en la ejecución de Actividades de la Vida Diaria. En el entorno clínico, la valoración de la función del miembro superior se realiza principalmente con escalas clínicas. Algunas de ellas valoran el nivel de dependencia o independencia en la ejecución de Actividades de la Vida Diaria, como, por ejemplo, el índice de Barthel y la escala FIM (Medida de la Independencia Funcional). Otras escalas, como Jebsen-Taylor Hand Function, miden la función del miembro superior valorando la destreza y la habilidad en la ejecución de determinadas tareas funcionales. Estas escalas son generales, es decir, se pueden aplicar a distintas poblaciones de sujetos y a la presencia de distintas patologías. Sin embargo, existen otras escalas desarrolladas específicamente para valorar una patología concreta, con el objetivo de hacer las evaluaciones funcionales más sensibles a cambios. Un ejemplo es la escala Spinal Cord Independence Measure (SCIM), desarrollada para valorar Lesión Medular. Las escalas clínicas son instrumentos de medida estandarizados, válidos para su uso en el entorno clínico porque se han validado en muestras grandes de pacientes. No obstante, suelen poseer una elevada componente de subjetividad que depende principalmente de la persona que puntúa el test. Otro aspecto a tener en cuenta, es que la sensibilidad de las escalas es alta, fundamentalmente, a cambios groseros en el estado de salud o en la función del miembro superior, de forma que cambios sutiles en el sujeto pueden no ser detectados. Además, en ocasiones, poseen saturaciones en el sistema de puntuación, de forma que mejorías que se puedan producir por encima de un determinado umbral no son detectadas. En definitiva, estas limitaciones hacen que las escalas clínicas no sean suficientes, por sí mismas, para evaluar estrategias motoras del miembro superior durante la ejecución de movimientos funcionales, siendo necesaria la búsqueda de instrumentos de medida que aporten objetividad, complementen las valoraciones y, al mismo tiempo, intenten solventar las limitaciones que poseen las escalas. Los estudios biomecánicos son ejemplos de métodos objetivos, en los que diversas tecnologías se pueden utilizar para recoger información de los sujetos. Una concreción de estos estudios son los estudios cinemáticos. Mediante tecnología optoelectrónica, inercial o electromagnética, estos estudios proporcionan información objetiva acerca del movimiento realizado por los sujetos, durante la ejecución de tareas concretas. Estos sistemas de medida proporcionan grandes cantidades de datos que carecen de una interpretación inmediata. Estos datos necesariamente deben ser tratados y reducidos a un conjunto de variables que, a priori, posean una interpretación más sencilla para ser utilizados en la práctica clínica. Estas han sido las principales motivaciones de esta investigación. El objetivo principal fue proponer un conjunto de índices cinemáticos que, de forma objetiva, valoren la función del miembro superior; y validar los índices propuestos en poblaciones con Lesión Medular, para su uso como instrumentos de valoración en el entorno clínico. Esta tesis se enmarca dentro de un proyecto de investigación: HYPER (Hybrid Neuroprosthetic and Neurorobotic Devices for Functional Compensation and Rehabilitation of Motor Disorders, referencia CSD2009-00067 CONSOLIDER INGENIO 2010). Dentro de este proyecto se lleva a cabo investigación en el desarrollo de modelos, para determinar los requisitos biomecánicos y los patrones de movimiento de los miembros superiores en sujetos sanos y personas con lesión medular. Además, se realiza investigación en la propuesta de nuevos instrumentos de evaluación funcional en el campo de la rehabilitación de los miembros superiores. ABSTRACT In people who have suffered a cervical Spinal Cord Injury, upper limbs function is affected to a greater or lesser extent, depending primarily on the level of the injury and the severity of it. The deficit in the upper limb function reduces the autonomy and independence of persons in the execution of Activities of Daily Living. In the clinical setting, assessment of upper limb function is mainly performed based on clinical scales. Some value the level of dependence or independence in performing activities of daily living, such as the Barthel Index and the FIM scale (Functional Independence Measure). Other scales, such as the Jebsen-Taylor Hand Function, measure upper limb function in terms of the skill and ability to perform specific functional tasks. These scales are general, so can be applied to different populations of subjects and the presence of different pathologies. However, there are other scales developed for a specific injury, in order to make the functional assessments more sensitive to changes. An example is the Spinal Cord Independence Measure (SCIM), developed for people with Spinal Cord Injury. The clinical scales are standardized instruments measure, valid for use in the clinical setting because they have been validated in large patient samples. However, they usually have a high level of subjectivity which mainly depends on the person who scores the test. Another aspect to take into account is the high sensitivity of the scales mainly to gross changes in the health status or upper limb function, so that subtle changes in the subject may not be detected. Moreover, sometimes, have saturations in the scoring system, so that improvements which may occur above a certain threshold are not detected. For these reasons, clinical scales are not enough, by themselves, to assess motor strategies used during movements. So, it’s necessary to find measure instruments that provide objectivity, supplement the assessments and, at the same time, solving the limitations that scales have. Biomechanical studies are examples of objective methods, in which several technologies can be used to collect information from the subjects. One kind of these studies is the kinematic movement analysis. By means of optoelectronics, inertial and electromagnetic technology, these studies provide objective information about the movement performed by the subjects during the execution of specific tasks. These systems provide large quantities of data without easy and intuitive interpretation. These data must necessarily be treated and reduced to a set of variables that, a priori, having a simpler interpretation for their use in the clinical practice. These were the main motivations of this research. The main objective was to propose a set of kinematic indices, or metrics that, objectively, assess the upper limb function and validate the proposed rates in populations with Spinal Cord Injury, for use as assessment tools in the clinical setting. This dissertation is framed within a research project: HYPER (Neurorobotic Devices for Functional Compensation and Rehabilitation of Motor Disorders, grant CSD2009- 00067 CONSOLIDER INGENIO 2010). Within this research project, research is conducted in relation to the biomechanical models development for determining the biomechanical requirements and movement patterns of the upper limb in healthy and people with Spinal Cord Injury. Moreover, research is conducted with respect to the proposed of new functional assessment instruments in the field of upper limb rehabilitation.

Soundscape quality analysis by fuzzy logic: A field study in Cordoba, Argentina

This research studies urban soundscapes through the comparative analysis of twelve public open spaces in the city of Córdoba (Argentina), taken as case studies. The work aims to examine selection of indicators and assessment tools intended to characterize soundscape quality. The field study was carried out through surveys and acoustic and psychoacoustic indicators, that are used together to objectively describe the sound quality of urban spaces. The study shows that, while there is a relationship of these indicators with the sound quality of the spaces, this is not linear. Their relative importance or influence depends on the interrelations occurring between the parameters studied. A model analyzing and correlating the parameters with the sound quality, based on the postulates of fuzzy logic, was applied as a tool of analysis, and it was seen to achieve a very close approximation to the subjective or perceptual response of the inhabitants. This close match between the model results and the perceptual response of the users confirms the fuzzy model as an effective tool for the study, not only of soundscapes, but also for those situations in which objective parameters must be related to the perceptual response of users.

Methods and Tools for Objective Assessment of Psychomotor Skills in Laparoscopic Surgery

Training and assessment paradigms for laparoscopic surgical skills are evolving from traditional mentor–trainee tutorship towards structured, more objective and safer programs. Accreditation of surgeons requires reaching a consensus on metrics and tasks used to assess surgeons’ psychomotor skills. Ongoing development of tracking systems and software solutions has allowed for the expansion of novel training and assessment means in laparoscopy. The current challenge is to adapt and include these systems within training programs, and to exploit their possibilities for evaluation purposes. This paper describes the state of the art in research on measuring and assessing psychomotor laparoscopic skills. It gives an overview on tracking systems as well as on metrics and advanced statistical and machine learning techniques employed for evaluation purposes. The later ones have a potential to be used as an aid in deciding on the surgical competence level, which is an important aspect when accreditation of the surgeons in particular, and patient safety in general, are considered. The prospective of these methods and tools make them complementary means for surgical assessment of motor skills, especially in the early stages of training. Successful examples such as the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery should help drive a paradigm change to structured curricula based on objective parameters. These may improve the accreditation of new surgeons, as well as optimize their already overloaded training schedules.

Tools in Spanish Universities to facilitate the transmission from High School to University and their assessment.

Incoming students in the University have education deficiencies, so universities studies require a sound basis of scientific knowledge. In this project are analysed instruments to reinforcing knowledge in those areas related to the studies that students are about to embark on public Spanish universities. There are important differences among universities and, in each university there are great differences among titles. Initial courses (cursos cero) are widespread (in 50% of universities) that selfevaluation instruments (14 % of universities). It is necessary to improve diffusion of those instruments because it is not possible to evaluate them. So are proposed the next actuations: to make regular standard surveys for professors and students; to publish results of surveys; public universities should institutionalize their basic training offer and improve the dissemination of this offer especially through the web. This paper presents a questionnaire to assess student opinion about these tools. To analyze the effectiveness, and make an initial estimate of the evaluation of these tools, we conducted a pilot test of the questionnaire with 68 students at the University of Extremadura. The results of preliminary statistical analysis conducted on the pilot test indicate that the survey results are reliable. A global evaluation of both tools, with a scale of 1 to 5, gave an average score of 3.29 for initial courses and 3.41 for selfevaluation. The 72.9% of the students consider the "self assessment" more effective than the "initial course"

Core physics and safety analysis of Generation-IV Sodium Fast Reactors using existing and newly developed computational tools

El futuro de la energía nuclear de fisión dependerá, entre otros factores, de la capacidad que las nuevas tecnologías demuestren para solventar los principales retos a largo plazo que se plantean. Los principales retos se pueden resumir en los siguientes aspectos: la capacidad de proporcionar una solución final, segura y fiable a los residuos radiactivos; así como dar solución a la limitación de recursos naturales necesarios para alimentar los reactores nucleares; y por último, una mejora robusta en la seguridad de las centrales que en definitiva evite cualquier daño potencial tanto en la población como en el medio ambiente como consecuencia de cualquier escenario imaginable o más allá de lo imaginable. Siguiendo estas motivaciones, la Generación IV de reactores nucleares surge con el compromiso de proporcionar electricidad de forma sostenible, segura, económica y evitando la proliferación de material fisible. Entre los sistemas conceptuales que se consideran para la Gen IV, los reactores rápidos destacan por su capacidad potencial de transmutar actínidos a la vez que permiten una utilización óptima de los recursos naturales. Entre los refrigerantes que se plantean, el sodio parece una de las soluciones más prometedoras. Como consecuencia, esta tesis surgió dentro del marco del proyecto europeo CP-ESFR con el principal objetivo de evaluar la física de núcleo y seguridad de los reactores rápidos refrigerados por sodio, al tiempo que se desarrollaron herramientas apropiadas para dichos análisis. Efectivamente, en una primera parte de la tesis, se abarca el estudio de la física del núcleo de un reactor rápido representativo, incluyendo el análisis detallado de la capacidad de transmutar actínidos minoritarios. Como resultado de dichos análisis, se publicó un artículo en la revista Annals of Nuclear Energy [96]. Por otra parte, a través de un análisis de un hipotético escenario nuclear español, se evalúo la disponibilidad de recursos naturales necesarios en el caso particular de España para alimentar una flota específica de reactores rápidos, siguiendo varios escenarios de demanda, y teniendo en cuenta la capacidad de reproducción de plutonio que tienen estos sistemas. Como resultado de este trabajo también surgió una publicación en otra revista científica de prestigio internacional como es Energy Conversion and Management [97]. Con objeto de realizar esos y otros análisis, se desarrollaron diversos modelos del núcleo del ESFR siguiendo varias configuraciones, y para diferentes códigos. Por otro lado, con objeto de poder realizar análisis de seguridad de reactores rápidos, son necesarias herramientas multidimensionales de alta fidelidad específicas para reactores rápidos. Dichas herramientas deben integrar fenómenos relacionados con la neutrónica y con la termo-hidráulica, entre otros, mediante una aproximación multi-física. Siguiendo este objetivo, se evalúo el código de difusión neutrónica ANDES para su aplicación a reactores rápidos. ANDES es un código de resolución nodal que se encuentra implementado dentro del sistema COBAYA3 y está basado en el método ACMFD. Por lo tanto, el método ACMFD fue sometido a una revisión en profundidad para evaluar su aptitud para la aplicación a reactores rápidos. Durante ese proceso, se identificaron determinadas limitaciones que se discutirán a lo largo de este trabajo, junto con los desarrollos que se han elaborado e implementado para la resolución de dichas dificultades. Por otra parte, se desarrolló satisfactoriamente el acomplamiento del código neutrónico ANDES con un código termo-hidráulico de subcanales llamado SUBCHANFLOW, desarrollado recientemente en el KIT. Como conclusión de esta parte, todos los desarrollos implementados son evaluados y verificados. En paralelo con esos desarrollos, se calcularon para el núcleo del ESFR las secciones eficaces en multigrupos homogeneizadas a nivel nodal, así como otros parámetros neutrónicos, mediante los códigos ERANOS, primero, y SERPENT, después. Dichos parámetros se utilizaron más adelante para realizar cálculos estacionarios con ANDES. Además, como consecuencia de la contribución de la UPM al paquete de seguridad del proyecto CP-ESFR, se calcularon mediante el código SERPENT los parámetros de cinética puntual que se necesitan introducir en los típicos códigos termo-hidráulicos de planta, para estudios de seguridad. En concreto, dichos parámetros sirvieron para el análisis del impacto que tienen los actínidos minoritarios en el comportamiento de transitorios. Concluyendo, la tesis presenta una aproximación sistemática y multidisciplinar aplicada al análisis de seguridad y comportamiento neutrónico de los reactores rápidos de sodio de la Gen-IV, usando herramientas de cálculo existentes y recién desarrolladas ad' hoc para tal aplicación. Se ha empleado una cantidad importante de tiempo en identificar limitaciones de los métodos nodales analíticos en su aplicación en multigrupos a reactores rápidos, y se proponen interesantes soluciones para abordarlas. ABSTRACT The future of nuclear reactors will depend, among other aspects, on the capability to solve the long-term challenges linked to this technology. These are the capability to provide a definite, safe and reliable solution to the nuclear wastes; the limitation of natural resources, needed to fuel the reactors; and last but not least, the improved safety, which would avoid any potential damage on the public and or environment as a consequence of any imaginable and beyond imaginable circumstance. Following these motivations, the IV Generation of nuclear reactors arises, with the aim to provide sustainable, safe, economic and proliferationresistant electricity. Among the systems considered for the Gen IV, fast reactors have a representative role thanks to their potential capacity to transmute actinides together with the optimal usage of natural resources, being the sodium fast reactors the most promising concept. As a consequence, this thesis was born in the framework of the CP-ESFR project with the generic aim of evaluating the core physics and safety of sodium fast reactors, as well as the development of the approppriated tools to perform such analyses. Indeed, in a first part of this thesis work, the main core physics of the representative sodium fast reactor are assessed, including a detailed analysis of the capability to transmute minor actinides. A part of the results obtained have been published in Annals of Nuclear Energy [96]. Moreover, by means of the analysis of a hypothetical Spanish nuclear scenario, the availability of natural resources required to deploy an specific fleet of fast reactor is assessed, taking into account the breeding properties of such systems. This work also led to a publication in Energy Conversion and Management [97]. In order to perform those and other analyses, several models of the ESFR core were created for different codes. On the other hand, in order to perform safety studies of sodium fast reactors, high fidelity multidimensional analysis tools for sodium fast reactors are required. Such tools should integrate neutronic and thermal-hydraulic phenomena in a multi-physics approach. Following this motivation, the neutron diffusion code ANDES is assessed for sodium fast reactor applications. ANDES is the nodal solver implemented inside the multigroup pin-by-pin diffusion COBAYA3 code, and is based on the analytical method ACMFD. Thus, the ACMFD was verified for SFR applications and while doing so, some limitations were encountered, which are discussed through this work. In order to solve those, some new developments are proposed and implemented in ANDES. Moreover, the code was satisfactorily coupled with the thermal-hydraulic code SUBCHANFLOW, recently developed at KIT. Finally, the different implementations are verified. In addition to those developments, the node homogenized multigroup cross sections and other neutron parameters were obtained for the ESFR core using ERANOS and SERPENT codes, and employed afterwards by ANDES to perform steady state calculations. Moreover, as a result of the UPM contribution to the safety package of the CP-ESFR project, the point kinetic parameters required by the typical plant thermal-hydraulic codes were computed for the ESFR core using SERPENT, which final aim was the assessment of the impact of minor actinides in transient behaviour. All in all, the thesis provides a systematic and multi-purpose approach applied to the assessment of safety and performance parameters of Generation-IV SFR, using existing and newly developed analytical tools. An important amount of time was employed in identifying the limitations that the analytical nodal diffusion methods present when applied to fast reactors following a multigroup approach, and interesting solutions are proposed in order to overcome them.

Assessment of irrigators’ preferences for different water supply risk management tools: option contract and insurance.

Irrigators face the risk of not having enough water to meet their crops’ demand. There are different mechanisms to cope with this risk, including water markets (option contracts) or insurance. A farmer will purchase them when the expected utility change derived from the tool is positive. This paper presents a theoretical assessment of the farmer’s expected utility under two different option contracts, a drought insurance and a combination of an option contract and the insurance. We analyze the conditions that determine farmer’s reference for one instrument or the other and perform a numerical application that is relevant for a Spanish region.

Integrated assessment of policy interventions for promoting sustainable irrigation in semi-arid environments: A hydro-economic modeling approach

Sustaining irrigated agriculture to meet food production needs while maintaining aquatic ecosystems is at the heart of many policy debates in various parts of the world, especially in arid and semi-arid areas. Researchers and practitioners are increasingly calling for integrated approaches, and policy-makers are progressively supporting the inclusion of ecological and social aspects in water management programs. This paper contributes to this policy debate by providing an integrated economic-hydrologic modeling framework that captures the socio-economic and environmental effects of various policy initiatives and climate variability. This modeling integration includes a risk-based economic optimization model and a hydrologic water management simulation model that have been specified for the Middle Guadiana basin, a vulnerable drought-prone agro-ecological area with highly regulated river systems in southwest Spain. Namely, two key water policy interventions were investigated: the implementation of minimum environmental flows (supported by the European Water Framework Directive, EU WFD), and a reduction in the legal amount of water delivered for irrigation (planned measure included in the new Guadiana River Basin Management Plan, GRBMP, still under discussion). Results indicate that current patterns of excessive water use for irrigation in the basin may put environmental flow demands at risk, jeopardizing the WFD s goal of restoring the ?good ecological status? of water bodies by 2015. Conflicts between environmental and agricultural water uses will be stressed during prolonged dry episodes, and particularly in summer low-flow periods, when there is an important increase of crop irrigation water requirements. Securing minimum stream flows would entail a substantial reduction in irrigation water use for rice cultivation, which might affect the profitability and economic viability of small rice-growing farms located upstream in the river. The new GRBMP could contribute to balance competing water demands in the basin and to increase economic water productivity, but might not be sufficient to ensure the provision of environmental flows as required by the WFD. A thoroughly revision of the basin s water use concession system for irrigation seems to be needed in order to bring the GRBMP in line with the WFD objectives. Furthermore, the study illustrates that social, economic, institutional, and technological factors, in addition to bio-physical conditions, are important issues to be considered for designing and developing water management strategies. The research initiative presented in this paper demonstrates that hydro-economic models can explicitly integrate all these issues, constituting a valuable tool that could assist policy makers for implementing sustainable irrigation policies.