Based on my vast experience in dealing with DSSs in various areas, I do think that there are any significant reasons why DSSs should not be applicable to Marine Spatial Planning Processes. The "essence" of DSS (or Decision Support Tools - DST) is the capability to provide decision makers with possibilities to explore and investigate consequences of respective decisions on the behavior of the system at hand. These capabilities are created by usage of appropriate models reflecting specifics of the system at hand. And it does not really mean what kind of system (in physical terms) is it. Important is, that the models (together with suitable "physical" or economic data) maps the behavior of the system considered in response to decisions (i.e. development alternatives, operational rules, etc) made or considered. One aspect speaks very strongly for the applicability of DST: capabilities of currently available software solutions to process and display and analyse spatial (geographical) data, which seems to be crucial in spatial planning. I think it is very interesting and promising application area. Go for it !

Hi,

I am a great believer and supporter of an "informating" versus "automating" approach to decision support. Accordingly, I consider visualisation as one of the most powerful approaches to aid decision makers in understanding and interpreting the problem at hand. My experiments show that this is true across various contexts, so I expect it to be equally beneficial in your application field.

Meliha

Dear Meliha

I agree with you, the decisions must be based on the needs of the inhabitants, therefore, the communication must be democratic and participatory through plans drawn up with the inhabitants, that is the methodology that I promote from my academic activities, research and citizen directly in sectors that still have no voice.

Dear Kazimierz, Meliha and Leticia,

First of all, thank you for your sharing your thoughts on DSTs or DSSs.

I think that one of the most powerful capabilities fo these kind of tools is the capacity of integrating information from different fields (phsycal, environmental, but also economic and social). The integration of such information, allows creating added value information. It also can be used to create what-if or trade-off analysis of different management options. But I also agree that another interesting use is the graphical outputs which in turn, can be used to communicate with stakholders. It is a very interesting why of presenting results which are easily understood and interpreted by different type of stakeholders. Very useful material for workshops and meetings with stakeholders.

Best regards