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Decision Support Framework Implementation Of The Web-Based Environmental Decision Analysis DASEES: Decision Analysis For A Sustainable Environment, Economy, And Society
Citation:
Stockton, T., B. DYSON, W. Houghteling, K. Black, M. Buchholtz ten Brink, T. J. CANFIELD, A. M. VEGA, M. Small, AND A. Rehr. Decision Support Framework Implementation Of The Web-Based Environmental Decision Analysis DASEES: Decision Analysis For A Sustainable Environment, Economy, And Society. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-12/008, 2012.
Impact/Purpose:
To create a flexible decision framework for structuring complex problems that helps decision-makers and stakeholders transparently evaluate scientific and technical analysis within an economic and societal values context.
Description:
Solutions to pervasive environmental problems often are not amenable to a straightforward application of science-based actions. These problems encompass large-scale environmental policy questions where environmental concerns, economic constraints, and societal values conflict causing seemingly intractable political situations. Research into the development of environmental applications that use systems-based approaches and decision science will enable society to make decisions that address these complex problems. The Decision Support Framework (DSF) supports structuring complex problems that help decision-makers and stakeholders transparently evaluate scientific and technical analyses within an economic and societal values context. From its inception, the implementation of the DSF was envisioned to be a web-based application of the principles and ideas elucidated by the framework conceptual model. The reasons for this are technical and functional. Technically, there is a large and expanding resource pool of software and hardware options for making customizable applications and associated tools capable of accessing information on the Web. Functionally, a web-based application promotes stakeholder involvement and participatory decision-making supporting the key aim of using community deliberation processes in the DSF. Implementation of the Decision Support Framework is facilitated through the web-based application DASEES (Decision Analysis for a Sustainable Environment, Economy, and Society). The following discussion is specific to the platform architecture and software design approaches being taken by the developers.