This review examines the drastic changes of the Ethiopian Rift Valley Lakes Basin (ERVLB) that have sweeping environmental implications, and it attempts to show the new paradigm of integrated water resource management (IWRM) option focusing on a decision support system (DSS). The water bodies ERVLB are facing many threats. Also, there have been negligible efforts at ensuring the normal functioning of ecosystems. Consequently, we are going to lose these natural aquatic resources. Effective management solutions should be developed to avert the existing and enduring degradation of lakes and their environs. DSS shas transitioned from engineering tools to systems that provide frameworks for stakeholder participation to guide inform and support decision-making transparently and more sustainably. This integrated modeling approach can be the scientific foundation for participatory planning processes and the collaborative development of decision support tools. The main challenge to achieving efficient adaptive management remains to provide within existing institutional arrangements, sufficient flexibility, and the capacity to close the feedback loop between system monitoring, modeling and scientific analysis, stakeholder participation, and decisive decision-making. As this is accomplished, it will enable water resources management to shine through the lenses of economic efficiency, social equity, and environmental sustainability.

Keywords: Decision Support System, Environmental Sustainability, Ethiopian Rift, integrated modeling approach, efficient adaptive management