A European case-based reasoning tool to inter-compare hydrological information on water stress among drainage sub-basins.

To deal with water stress, there is a need to compare the water management issues of hydrological regions in order to inter-compare them and transfer knowledge from one area to another. An approach is presented using case-based reasoning (CBR) to inter-compare European drainage sub-basins. The CBR uses indicators for the natural hydrological potential of drainage sub-basins, the types of water stresses and the mitigation measures to cope with this stress. A prerequisite for the success of this tool is that the indicators are publicly and digitally available for the whole of Europe and contain insight to the appropriate information scale. This sets strong limits to the indicators used. In some cases, a proxy indicator may be more appropriate than a primary indicator, when these are not publicly available at the appropriate information scale. The set-up of the CBR is illustrated using some examples of indicators.