Author(s): Carlos A. Rogeliz; Hector Angarita; Andrea Nardini; Juliana Delgado; Diego Hincapie
Linked Author(s): Andrea Gianni C. NARDINI
Keywords: No Keywords
Abstract: To support Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), adequate methodologies and tools are needed. Decision Support Systems (DSS) are one of the tools that play an important role as a support to policy development and implementation for IWRM. However, the success of a DSS is “to be truly used”, including continuous improvements. To this aim, clearly identifying from the very beginning who will be the DSS users and what they expect to receive from the DSS, is a must for success. In this identification of stakeholders, their roles and requirements, typically an important issue related with their understanding and perception of the basin emerges which is at a time a difficulty and an opportunity: it is a difficulty because, visions can diverge and misunderstandings and even tensions or conflicts may arise; it is an opportunity, because–if suitably shared and managed-from multiple views a more robust mutual understanding of problems and opportunities can be reached. Commonly, as in the case of the Magdalena river basin, a single decision maker (DM) cannot be identified; rather decisions are made in a somehow disconnected fashion, often just at a local scale, without considering the opportunities that a system-scale approach can provide. Being aware of this, the Support System for Decision Making at Macro-Basin Scale (SIMA) has been designed and implemented to stimulate and help these different policy/decision makers to adopt a system view, by ensuring that the “different pieces of the puzzle are taken into account at the same time”, so promoting a view of the problems of the basin that is integrated, transparent, coherent and uniform amongst the multiple stakeholders involved. SIMA incorporates a set of analytical tools to predict the accumulative impacts of basin development, while integrating geography, hydrology with ecology. In this paper, an overview of the main features of SIMA are presented and an implementation of the system for the Magdalena macro-basin in Colombia is also illustrated as a case of use of the proposed methodological framework focused in minimizing impacts of hydropower development.
Year: 2018