Review of decision support systems devoted to the management of Inland and coastal waters in the European Union

Abstract

One of the most important policies in the European Union concerns the management of water resources, including rivers, lagoons and coastal areas. Within this strategic and holistic approach to water resources management, contamination issues are relevant aspects of concern. As an answer to this legislative framework, many different Decision Support Systems are currently available or under development to support river basins and coastal waters management, although very few directly address the problem of contamination. In fact, the different DSSs have been structured and developed to address specific management needs, often within specific legislative requirements, and to capture specific problematic issues. This chapter, after an analysis of relevant European policies, reviews some of these systems developed at the European level. Of the analyzed systems, differences and common aspects are discussed, by focusing on features such as the level of integration among the several considered issues, the scale of application, the GIS potentialities and spatial analysis, the uncertainty and sensitivity analysis performances, the availability and easiness to use for the main stakeholders. Moreover, the comparison among these systems highlights frameworks, functionalities and interfaces, and focuses on specific technical aspects, such as the structure and the relations among components, the included models, the ways and abilities to facilitate inclusion of different perspectives by decision makers. The review also puts into evidence the main strengths of the systems in addressing relevant management issues, as well as critical limitations in application and use. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.