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Abstract
Common property resource disputes are increasing, due to increase in competition and
deterioration of quality. Cooperative arrangements have long been in the center of public interest
regarding the mechanisms used by communities that share them. Two main approaches have
been applied separately, namely negotiation approaches and cooperative game theory. Although
the two approaches depart from different directions and are based on different assumptions, they
complement each other as they are based on similar principles of fairness and efficiency and can
both be seen as leading to cooperative outcomes. In this paper we apply the Role-Playing Game
that is a component of the Companion Modeling approach--a negotiation procedure, and
Cooperative Game Theory (Shapley value and the nucleolus) to a water allocation problem in the
Kat watershed in South Africa. We use simplifying assumptions to allow a comparable
solution. The negotiation and the cooperative game theory provide similar trends vis a vis the
various players and their outcomes. Our conclusion is that Cooperative Game Theory and
Negotiation approaches may be complementary to each other.