Abstract
The development of a decision support system (DSS) to inform policy making has been progressing rapidly. This paper presents a generic framework and the development steps of a decision tool prototype of geographic information systems (GIS)-based decision support system of river health diagnosis (RHD-DSS). This system integrates data, calculation models, and human knowledge of river health status assessment, causal factors diagnosis, and restoration decision making to assist decision makers during river restoration and management in Zhejiang Province, China. Our RHD-DSS is composed of four main elements: the graphical user interface (GUI), the database, the model base, and the knowledge base. It has five functional components: the input module, the database management, the diagnostic indicators management, the assessment and diagnosis, and the visual result module. The system design is illustrated with particular emphasis on the development of the database, model schemas, diagnosis and analytical processing techniques, and map management design. Finally, the application of the prototype RHD-DSS is presented and implemented for Xinjiangtang River of Haining County in Zhejiang Province, China. This case study is used to demonstrate the advantages gained by the application of this system. We conclude that there is great potential for using the RHD-DSS to systematically manage river basins in order to effectively mitigate environmental issues. The proposed approach will provide river managers and designers with improved insight into river degradation conditions, thereby strengthening the assessment process and the administration of human activities in river management.
Highlights
In China as well as worldwide, river systems face many challenges, and the issues of river health and restoration are receiving increased attention [1,2,3]
To better understand the health status of the Xinjiangtang River and to identify the main causal factors of river health decline, a RHD-decision support system (DSS) is applied based on the available digital map, which is imported, and all required data
The health index (HI) of each segment is displayed according to color, with darker color corresponding to greater HI
Summary
In China as well as worldwide, river systems face many challenges, and the issues of river health and restoration are receiving increased attention [1,2,3]. River Assessment System) [5,6,7] have been developed These systems feature complexly linked multi-scale data and assessment models, and they aim to evaluate the ecological status of rivers to provide a scientific basis for applied decision making. These systems help river managers evaluate a river’s status and identify its problems. As the issue of river system health is a complex subject, involving multi-dimensional, spatial, and non-spatial data of hydrological, chemical, physical, biological, and climatologic characteristics and processes [8,9], the task of diagnosing river system health is to transform these very large, complex, and unorganized data into information useful for decision making [10,11] to derive conclusive trends or patterns of river system development. To quantitatively diagnose and map river quality and analyze the main anthropogenic factors, a new robust computer-based methodology and framework should be developed, incorporating river systems features at multiple scales [12,13]
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