Decision Support Systems for Sustainable Development


Book Description

In recent years, much work has been done in formulating and clarifying the concept of sustainable development and related theoretical and research issues. Now, the challenge has shifted to designing and stimulating processes of effective planning and decision-making, at all levels of human activity, in such a way as to achieve local and global sustainable development. Information technology can help a great deal in achieving sustainable development by providing well-designed and useful tools for decision makers. One such tool is the decision support system, or DSS. This book explores the area of DSS in the context of sustainable development. As DSS is a very new technique, especially in the developing world, this book will serve as a reference text, primarily for managers, government officials, and information professionals in developing countries. It covers the concept of sustainable development, defines DSS and how it can be used in the planning and management of sustainable development, and examines the state of the art in DSS use. Other interested readers will include students, teachers, and analysts in information sciences; DSS designers, developers, and implementors; and international development agencies.




Information Systems for Sustainable Development


Book Description

Information Systems for Sustainable Development provides a survey on approaches to information systems supporting sustainable development in the private or public sector. It also documents and encourages the first steps of environmental information processing towards this more comprehensive goal.




Down to Earth


Book Description

In 1992, world leaders adopted Agenda 21, the work program of the 1992 U.N. Conference on Environment and Development. This landmark event provided a political foundation and action items to facilitate the global transition toward sustainable development. The international community marked the tenth anniversary of this conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, in August 2002. Down to Earth, a component of the U.S. State Department's "Geographic Information for Sustainable Development" project for the World Summit, focuses on sub-Saharan Africa with examples drawn from case-study regions where the U.S. Agency for International Development and other agencies have broad experience. Although African countries are the geographic focus of the study, the report has broader applicability. Down to Earth summarizes the importance and applicability of geographic data for sustainable development and draws on experiences in African countries to examine how future sources and applications of geographic data could provide reliable support to decision-makers as they work towards sustainable development. The committee emphasizes the potential of new technologies, such as satellite remote-sensing systems and geographic information systems, that have revolutionized data collection and analysis over the last decade.







Sustainability Assessment


Book Description

Currently the writing on the subject is limited and comprises, for the most part, guidance documents and completed assessments.




Agricultural Water Management


Book Description

This report contains a collection of papers from a workshopâ€"Strengthening Science-Based Decision-Making for Sustainable Management of Scarce Water Resources for Agricultural Production, held in Tunisia. Participants, including scientists, decision makers, representatives of non-profit organizations, and a farmer, came from the United States and several countries in North Africa and the Middle East. The papers examined constraints to agricultural production as it relates to water scarcity; focusing on 1) the state of the science regarding water management for agricultural purposes in the Middle East and North Africa 2) how science can be applied to better manage existing water supplies to optimize the domestic production of food and fiber. The cross-cutting themes of the workshop were the elements or principles of science-based decision making, the role of the scientific community in ensuring that science is an integral part of the decision making process, and ways to improve communications between scientists and decision makers.




Planning Support Systems for Sustainable Urban Development


Book Description

This book collects a selection of the best articles presented at the CUPUM (Computers in Urban Planning and Urban Management) conference, held in the second week of July 2013 in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The articles included were selected by external reviewers using a double blind process.




Decision Support Systems for Sustainable Computing


Book Description

Decision Support Systems for Sustainable Computing investigates recent technological advances in decision support systems models designed to solve real world applications. The book provides a broad overview of digital technology transformation as applied to the circular economy which is seeking to drive improvements in scientific research, communication, logistics, automation, production, and the improved sustainability of these processes and products. The book explores applications of decision support for sustainable development across supply chain management, business intelligence, agriculture, aviation, communications, and finance. - Provides a broad overview of emerging trends and technologies in decision support systems applications - Investigates recent trends and core concepts in digital technology transformation as applied to the circular economy and sustainable development - Analyzes the application of decision support systems models across a range of case studies and processes which rely on multi-criteria decision-making and have been designed specifically to improve overall sustainability




Decision-Making Support Systems: Achievements and Challenges for the New Decade


Book Description

Annotation The book presents state-of-the-art knowledge about decision-making support systems (DMSS). Its main goals are to provide a compendium of quality chapters on decision-making support systems that help diffuse scarce knowledge about effective methods and strategies for successfully designing, developing, implementing, and evaluating decision-making support systems, and to create an awareness among readers about the relevance of decision-making support systems in the current complex and dynamic management environment.




The Development of an Integrated Planning and Decision Support System (IPDSS) for Land Consolidation


Book Description

This book provides an extensive review of three interrelated issues: land fragmentation, land consolidation, and land reallocation, and it presents in detail the theoretical background, design, development and application of a prototype integrated planning and decision support system for land consolidation. The system integrates geographic information systems (GIS) and artificial intelligence techniques including expert systems (ES) and genetic algorithms (GAs) with multi-criteria decision methods (MCDM), both multi-attribute (MADM) and multi-objective (MODM). The system is based on four modules for measuring land fragmentation; automatically generating alternative land redistribution plans; evaluating those plans; and automatically designing the land partitioning plan. The presented research provides a new scientific framework for land-consolidation planning both in terms of theory and practice, by presenting new findings and by developing better tools and methods embedded in an integrated GIS environment. It also makes a valuable contribution to the fields of GIS and spatial planning, as it provides new methods and ideas that could be applied to improve the former for the benefit of the latter in the context of planning support systems. “From the 1960s, ambitious research activities set out to observe regarding IT-support of the complex and time consuming redistribution processes within land consolidation – without any practically relevant results, until now. This scientific work is likely to close that gap. This distinguished publication is highly recommended to land consolidation planning experts, researchers and academics alike.” – Prof. Dr.-Ing. Joachim Thomas, Münster/ Germany "Planning support systems take new scientific tools based on GIS, optimisation and simulation and use these to inform the process of plan-making and policy. This book is one of the first to show how this can be consistently done and it is a triumph of demonstrating how such systems can be made operational. Essential reading for planners, analysts and GI scientists." – Prof. Michael Batty, University College London