Decision Support Systems for Water Resources Management in Developing Countries: Learning from Experiences in Africa

Abstract

Decision support system (DSS) tools are rather popular in the literature on water resources management. The European Project "Splash" conducted a survey of the literature and of DSS implementation in developing countries with specific reference on Africa. Experts in the field were consulted through an ad hoc questionnaire and interviews. The results of the survey indicate that the exchange of experiences amongst projects with similar objectives or even the same case study is very limited, with a tendency towards restarting every time from scratch. As a consequence, it seems that DSS developments have produced only limited positive impacts. Most experts contacted shared either the frustration deriving from the limited impacts on intended end-users, who rarely used the tool after the project end, or in the case of ongoing projects, the preoccupation for future maintenance. Responses from the questionnaires indicate that priority efforts should not focus on developing the tools, but rather on improving the effectiveness and applicability of integrated water resource management legislative and planning frameworks, training and capacity building, networking and cooperation, harmonization of transnational data infrastructures and, very importantly, learning from past experiences and adopting enhanced protocols for DSS development.

Impact of the Farakka Dam on Thresholds of the Hydrologic Flow Regime in the Lower Ganges River Basin (Bangladesh)

“…The calculated thresholds can also be used for water allocation to meet household, agriculture and industrial water demands. In trans-boundary river basin management within an integrated water resources management approach [71][72][73][74][75][76], thresholds of flow variability can be used as a basis for negotiation with other riparian countries. This simple, but effective, approach for evaluating the impact of dam-induced hydrologic alterations presented in this study may also prove to be useful to the policymakers and river basin authorities.…”

Basin Flood Risk Management: A Territorial Data-Driven Approach to Support Decision-Making

“…The need to harmonize the non-consumptive uses of water-among them flood risk management-and the consumptive uses of water demands a change in the way water management is conducted. This change must consider hydrological boundaries in an integrated approach following the principles of subsidiarity and stakeholder participation [4,5].…”

Multi-criteria evaluation of sources for self-help domestic water supply

“…Generally, as noted by Giupponi and Sgobbi (2013) environmental issues are always the object of diversified and often conflicting interests (economic, social, and cultural). Water supply delivery management involves many factors, quantitative and qualitative, tangible and intangibles, and may include interest groups and stakeholders (Okeola and Sule 2012).…”

“…Multi-criteria decision making analysis (MCDA) enables decision makers to transparently evaluate alternatives from a multi-disciplinary and holistic perspective than from the bias of a single discipline. MCDA has gained credibility in the field of integrated water resources management because of its ability to overcome human limits to intuitively combine different sources of information in a rational way without requiring the estimation of monetary values 1 3 12 Page 2 of 13 (Giupponi and Sgobbi 2013). MCDA is the general field of study which includes decision making in the presence of two or more conflicting objectives and/or decision analysis processes involving two or more attributes (Tecle and Duckstein 1994).…”