Interactive Spatial Decision Support for Water Management and Planning Purposes

Due to the immense amount of data, models and expert knowledge, decisions in the field of management and planning are no longer easy to make. As modern computers are able to process comprehensive data, innovative decision support functionalities and processors can be used to maintain such complex decisions. As soon as spatial data is included in the decision making process, GIS tools shall be integrated into the related procedure. To provide stakeholders standalone, user and question specific spatial decision support tools, the ESRI developer library ArcGIS Engine can be used to fulfil these requirements. The tools can be combined within a comprehensive software program, which is defined as a Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS). Based on the current state of science and technology, computer based SDSSs can be used for modern management and planning purposes. To fulfill the requirements of being advanced comprehensive systems, such modern SDSSs provide access to individual data and computer models. They combine tools and analysis functions of Geographical Information Systems (GIS), Decision Support Systems (DSS), Remote Sensing (RS), and numerical, expert or statistical models. In addition to that, such complex systems include expert knowledge and enable the user to interact with the SDSSs during run-time. By programming individual SDSSs the usage of an object oriented programming language, i.e. Java in combination with ArcGIS Engine is useful to guarantee SDSSs which are accessible from different platforms. This paper describes a methodological approach how a SDSS can be designed and developed by using ArcGIS Engine and Java and how it could be provided as a standalone software tool for water management and planning purposes.