Causal-Loop Diagram Model of the Jordan Valley

One of the objectives of the EcoFuture project was to develop a Causal Loop Diagram (CLD) for the Jordan Valley (JV) that would include all three involved territories to compare and contrast the different challenges and priorities between them. The CLD identifies the WEFE Nexus challenges faced in the area and the key leverage point/actions that one can take to affect them as well as their interconnections and the interdependence between the challenges and the actions. Mapping of the WEFE system for the three territories in the JV can identify the differences in the key priorities between the stakeholders of the territories as well as common ground and conflict points.

We used a 3-prong approach to develop and analyze the CLD for the JV. The process was to first create a draft CLD for the JV based on literature review and expert knowledge, then validated it through EcoFuture partners. The next step was to validate the CLD with key stakeholders involved in the National living labs and revise it according to stakeholder feedback if necessary and rank the challenges. Once this process was completed in the three territories, a unified CLD for the JV was created. The final stage was to analyze the unified CLD and compare and contrast the prioritization of the challenges in each of the three territories. This methodology allowed to identify the priorities regarding the Nexus challenges of the three territories and conflicting actions within and between territories as well as achieving a common understanding of the challenges, problems and impacts to the WEFE Nexus for the JV.

The top four challenges according to the Jordanian and Palestinian stakeholders are mainly related to agriculture: water quality, water demand for irrigation, and agricultural development. Soil quality is included in the list of the top challenges from Jordanian perspective, while renewable energy availability is included in the list from Palestinian perspective. On the other hand, for Israeli stakeholders, climate change, competition between development and land conservation, biodiversity and renewable energy availability are of high priority. The next (lesser) priorities for Jordanian and Palestinian stakeholders are biodiversity and climate change. Jordanian stakeholders included among the list of challenges of lesser priorities the renewable energy availability and governance. For Israeli stakeholders, population growth, sanitation services, agricultural development and water quality constitute the next (lesser) priorities. The last priority for Jordanian and Palestinian stakeholders is population growth while for Israeli stakeholders is water demand for irrigation. From the results of the prioritization of challenges, it is concluded that the priorities for Palestinian and Jordanian stakeholders are similar while Israeli stakeholders have other priorities.

The CLD created by the experts and the Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian partners, was used as a first level of engagement of stakeholders in JV and the results validated its effectiveness as a tool for engagement.