Development of a Decision Support System for Sustainable Environmental Management and Stakeholder Engagement

Abstract

Undertaking integrated and sustainable water resources management (ISWRM) and providing socially acceptable solutions with scientifically solid bases is a dynamic and challenging process. Two basic pillars–umbrellas can be identified in the literature: stakeholder engagement and analysis; and integrated monitoring–modelling in the form of a decision support system (DSS) that can assess, evaluate and rank the management options. This study presents a framework that can be used as a good-practice example of successful stakeholder engagement (public engagement and collaboration with local communities towards shared visions) and an integrated DSS for ISWRM (including characterisation at catchment and local scales, programmes of measures and their evaluation): the Framework for Integrated Land and Landscape Management (FILLM), developed by an Irish multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder platform, the Water Forum. The fundamental theoretical principles and practical aspects of the FILLM are analysed. A step-by-step guide is proposed for its application, bridging the above pillars, using examples, reviewing methods and software, and analysing challenges and trends. It can help both socio-economic and environmental scientists (modellers) understand each other’s roles and find reviews of useful tools and methods for their work. This work can be a reference point for future ISWRM and environment management and can contribute to holistic education on such topics.

Bathing water quality analysis, management and policy: an integrated assessment for Ireland

“…This will facilitate the development of efficient and targeted actions measures. Integrated catchment-coastal models would be highly valuable and easily transferable, as well as 'whole-of-environment' approaches combined with stakeholder analyses (Alamanos et al, 2021b). c. In case of data limitations, available data sources can be used for various useful datasets.…”

Resistance to Change and Perceived Risk as Determinants of Water-Saving Intention

“…It is clear that our findings refer exclusively to the consumers' perspective, which is one of the stakeholders in the broader and more complex system related to water management. It is accepted that the stakeholders involved (policy makers, communities, managers, social representatives) must have a shared vision and continuous communication [89], so knowing the existence of CR and its intensity can help to improve the adaptation and commitment of stakeholders, and to propose more effective management and governance models.…”

A System Innovation Approach for Science-Stakeholder Interface: Theory and Application to Water-Land-Food-Energy Nexus

“…In order to achieve the systemic analysis of the Nexus, and provide optimum solutions, the literature increasingly proposes the co-existence of two parallel procedures (Albrecht et al, 2018;Yung et al, 2019;Endo et al, 2020;Alamanos et al, 2021):…”

“…Both procedures must be based on the principles of transparency and openness, fairness, equality and respect, efficiency, collegiality and tolerance, common goal-visions, and commitment, under the purpose of the community's and individuals' good (Alamanos et al, 2021). The analysis of Laspidou et al (2020) notes that to move from a general nexus thinking to an operational nexus concept, it is important to focus on data availability and scale.…”