DSS-large rivers: developing a DSS under changing societal requirements

摘要

This article discusses the development process of a decision support system for river management, named DSS-Large Rivers. It focuses on the difficulties encountered during system development with respect to (1) changing opinions in society on the nature of measures to be assessed, (2) changes in IT-technology and 93) different view of the various end user organisations. DSS-Large Rivers is targeted at flood management by way of river landscape planning, a hot issue in the lower reaches of the Rhine and Meuse river. Since 1995, various decision support systems have been developed to assess this issue. After a short historical overview, the need for a new DSS with be discussed, followed by a description of the process to obtain functional requirements. The paper elaborates on the design and implementation process, paying attention to the difficulty to match changing end user opinions within rather fixed project conditions. A number of lessons have been drawn, both on the development of a DSS within a changing society, and on the technical design and implementation process.