The IWRAM reached a stage of development that enabled ready investigation of the impacts of seasonal water availability and demand, land planning to control upland erosion, family unit production, and impacts of market conditions on local and household socio-economic conditions. It was designed to be readily expandable to include other interrelated issues in other catchments such as water quality and flooding, and to allow its transfer and adaptation to other catchments. The close involvement of a key government department - the Land Development Department (LDD) - the day-to-day operation of the project was significant.

The project as a whole gained some impressive achievements and impacts in its short life. Reviewers found that the project had developed a practical, relatively uncomplicated and appropriate DSS that provided an integrated modeling framework using minimum data sets that included biophysical system behaviour at a catchment scale along with market and household conditions. There are few examples of this approach elsewhere.
Reviewers also found that the socioeconomic survey and ethnographic fieldwork undertaken by the project provides the most comprehensive analysis of agricultural households in Northern Thailand in recent years. The approach taken by project researchers had enabled ready appraisal of policy, planning and regulatory options and determination of their impact on aspects of the environment (soil erosion and water availability in the catchment studied) as well as the impact on local household and community socioeconomic circumstances. Other Thai agencies (e.g. Office of National Water Resources Commission (ONWRC)) had expressed interest in the project and wished to use it in their future work.
The project delivered extensive training for students at the universities involved as well as for the main operational agency involved (LDD). Thai agencies (Royal Project Foundation, Land Development Department and ONWRC) identified significant additional funds to invest in future extension of the project.
The project has created a strong and enthusiastic group of researchers in Thailand and Australia. The research has a strong international reputation and is using methodologies unique to the group and reported in international, peer-reviewed literature and conferences.
A 12-month project extension helped refine the management framework. The work led on to another ACIAR medium project, 'Institutional strengthening for integrated water resource management in Thailand'.