Systems Analysis – a new paradigm and decision support tools for the water framework directive

摘要

In the early days of Systems Analysis the focus was on providing tools foroptimisation, modelling and simulation for use by experts. Now there is arecognition of the need to develop and disseminate tools to assist in makingdecisions, negotiating compromises and communicating preferences that caneasily be used by stakeholders without the need for specialist training. TheWater Framework Directive (WFD) requires public participation and thusprovides a strong incentive for progress in this direction. This paperplaces the new paradigm in the context of the classical one and discussessome of the new approaches which can be used in the implementation of theWFD. These include multi-criteria decision support methods suitable forenvironmental problems, adaptive management, cognitive mapping, sociallearning and cooperative design and group decision-making. Concordancemethods (such as ELECTRE) and the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) areidentified as multi-criteria methods that can be readily integrated intoDecision Support Systems (DSS) that deal with complex environmental issueswith very many criteria, some of which are qualitative. The expanding use ofthe new paradigm provides an opportunity to observe and learn from theinteraction of stakeholders with the new technology and to assess itseffectiveness.