The use of decision support tools in participatory river basin management

Abstract

There are growing demands for effective public participation in river basin management. These are posed among others by the proposed EU Water Framework Directive as well as international conventions and policy documents. The demands will raise a need for guidance on exactly how the public is to be involved. In public participation ‘decision support tools’ (DST) and integrated modelling can have a role to play. Many computer tools not only can serve as tools for analysis for experts, but also as vehicles for communication, training, forecasting and experimentation. Illustrated by selected examples of software a range of tools and their potential applications are presented. Essential for the added-value of computer tools in stakeholder participation, in comparison to other methods like expert presentations, fact sheets, etc., is the way they are used. Lessons can be drawn from projects where computer tools were used in other policy areas. Within an European research project on energy and climate policy (ULYSSES) integrated models on global climate change were used in integrated assessment (IA) focus groups. A web-based tutorial for the use of computer models was developed. It gives guidelines for the design and setup of participatory arrangements in conjunction with computer models. Besides procedural recommendations lessons can be drawn concerning the kind of output the tools should provide and the early involvement of users is modelling and software development.