Use of decision support systems to address contaminated coastal sediments: Experience in the United States

Abstract

Management of contaminated sediments in coastal and inland waterways poses many complex technical and social issues that must be addressed by multiple stakeholders. These stakeholders are guided by conflicting sets of values, regulatory constraints, and management goals, and have imperfect information on which to base decisions. The environmental quality of coastal and inland waters is usually affected by multiple stressors in addition to the sediment contamination at issue, and navigating these dynamics can be aided when decision makers and stakeholders have a shared vision of goals and a path forward to achieving them. The management process necessarily involves making a variety of decisions of varying complexity, with varying levels of importance to affected stakeholders. That process can benefit from using a systematic decision support system (DSS) to develop management goals, consider alternatives, understand their associated risks, and include the participation of various specialists such as environmental scientists, policy makers, economists, the businesses community, cultural experts, and public interest groups. This chapter summarizes recent developments in quantitative DSSs, both informal and formal, in the context of contaminated sediments in coastal environments, and provides insight into the benefits of incorporating DSS into sediment management. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.