Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research UFZ

Together with an international consortium of research partners, an artificial intelligence tool has been developed which helps policy-makers to understand the interacting effects of policies across different sectors (e.g., water, energy, climate change adaptation, land-use, health) - showing the performance in meeting policy goals, impact on resources (e.g., water resources used, energy produced, CO2 reduction, etc.) and the uncertainty of impacts under different climate and socioeconomic projections. It recommends “optimal” policy packages (suite of policies across the sectors) that reduce trade-offs and improve synergies in meeting specific targets of the UN SDGs, reduces risk of policy failure by providing an opportunity to (re)-design policies before implementation and facilitate stakeholder discussions.  The tool is at a Technology Readiness Level 7 and has been successfully tested in five river basins. We are seeking municipalities and regions to join our team as new case-studies to test innovations.