The overall objective of the project is to establish the scientific basis for a "better sustainability than today" water management and water-related land management in the Dead Sea basin. The project is funded by the EU INCOMED program, and the partners are the Environmental Planning Department, ARC Seibersdorf Research Centre, Austria; Water Resource Systems Research Laboratory, University of Newcastle, UK; Center for Environmental Policy, Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, Israel; The Applied research Institute – Jerusalem, Palestine; and EnviroConsult Office, Jordan. At the end of the project period it is expected to develop a GIS-based database; realistic development scenarios until the year 2020 that consider social, economic, technical and ecological chances and constraints; understand the interconnections of the water management system; analysis and evaluation of socially, economically and environmentally sound options for a more sustainable water use; mapping of a set of “more sustainable than today” joint development plans with a risk-benefit evaluation, based on dynamic modeling under different development scenarios.