Implementation considerations for development of a web-based decision support system for risk-based corrective analysis

Abstract

Risk-based regulation and management of hazardous and other waste sites has been noted to be problematic, especially due to a lack of complete understanding of the underlying scientific and technical principles by all the stakeholders. Decision support systems (DSS) are known to play a useful role in disseminating knowledge on an organisational scale and, potentially, may be of value to disseminate diverse and disjointed environmental information necessary to comprehend and carry out corrective action calculations. The implementation details of such a decision support system are presented in this paper. The DSS is based on the hybrid client-server architecture and uses several web elements such as static and dynamic HTML, animation and scripting to enhance the presentation of the information. As the DSS is intended to cater to a wide range of audiences, content customisation techniques are used to reduce cognitive dissonance and ensure information most important to the stakeholder is presented first. This system can serve as a useful template for other similar environmental applications. It is important that the end-user needs are carefully assessed and borne in mind during the development of decision support systems for environmental knowledge transfer applications.