Scholars-In-Residence

Dr. Olivier Barreteau is senior water scientist at Cemagref, the French research institute on environmental and agricultural engineering, within joint research unit G-EAU in Montpellier, dedicated to water management and water uses. He is currently scholar in residence in the MUSIC program, aiming at comparing approaches to collaborative decision making in the field of water management in France and at MIT. After a degree in hydrology, he did his PhD within CIRAD, the French Research institute on agriculture and development, developing Agent Based simulations of cooperation patterns among farmers in Senegal River valley irrigated systems.
He moved then to Cemagref in 1999, developing his skills on interdisciplinary issues about collaborative water management at small basin scales, being involved in supporting the implementation of collaborative water management plan in southern France basins. His research focuses on the development of tools and methods to support collective decision processes about water issues, notably agent-based models and role-playing games. He is also now involved in projects comparing and assessing participatory modelling. He has been involved in several EU research projects from framework programs 5 and 6.
He is founder member of the Companion Modeling network (COMMOD), which aims at building upon various experiments involving iterative use of simulation models to understand and/or support collaborative decision making processes in the field of renewable resources management. This network is also proposing a charter to specify protocol for interaction with people using simulation models.