S. Mukhtar Hashemi - Research Fellow, Centre for Land Use and Water Resources Research (CLUWRR),School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Newcastle University, England, UK & Scientific Advisor, Applied Research office, Iran Water Resources Company (IWRMC), Tehran, Iran.

This keynote paper calls for the development of integrated ‘socio-technical’ methodological approach to create a science-policy interface. Despite many technical advances in the field of hydroinformatics, the policy and decision-making world is unable to use technical approaches because there has been an undue emphasis on the technological aspects which have been incorporated far better than the social aspects. However, far greater effort is required to incorporate social and political sciences into the domain of water engineering applications. The goal of this paper is to elaborate on the illusive interface between science and water policy addressing one main question: how to link or find an interface between policy (institutional matters) and science (technical and natural environment aspects). To achieve this goal, a new integrated socio-technical and institutional (ISTI) methodological approach has been envisaged based on combining multiple theoretical and analytical frameworks into a single methodological framework to attain a linkage between science and policy-making. The ISTI framework comprises of integrated and combined conceptual and analytical frameworks. By using this unique analytical approach in which technical and non-technical assessment tools are linked, the required science-policy interface can be achieved

hydroinformatics, decision support systems (DSS), integrated socio-technical and institutional (ISTI) methodological approach, science and policy interface, Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM)