1 What do users really want ? Participatory 2 development of decision support tools for 3 environmental management based on outcomes . 4 Richard

There is increasing demand from stakeholders for tools to support outcome-based 12 approaches in environmental management. For such tools to be useful, understanding user 13 requirements is key. In Scotland, UK, stakeholders were engaged in the development of an 14 Environmental Decision Support System (EDSS) to support the management of land and 15 freshwater resources for multiple policy outcomes. A structured participatory engagement process 16 was employed to determine stakeholder requirements, establish development principles to fulfil 17 these requirements and road-test prototypes. The EDSS specification that emerged from this 18 bottom-up process was spatially-explicit, free at the point of use, and touch and mobile device 19 compatible. This application, which is under development, does not closely resemble most existing 20 published EDSS. We suggest that there is a mismatch between the way scientists typically 21 conceptualise EDSS and the kinds of applications that are likely to be useful to decision-makers on 22 the ground. Interactive mobile and web-based geospatial information services have become 23 ubiquitous in our daily lives, but their importance is not reflected in current literature on EDSS. The 24 current focus in environmental management on adaptive, stakeholder-centred strategies based on 25 outcomes offers an opportunity to make better use of these new technologies to aid 26 decision-making processes. 27