DSS architecture and design

The work of WP1

Task defined in the Momerandum of Understanding MoU:

It will result in reports on guidelines for good practices to assist overall system design, quality control, integration, sharing, and use. It will focus on design processes and different architectures to build a DSS. It will address innovative ways of ...

1. managing the MBMS to improve the effectiveness of forest DSSs,
2. designing interfaces between DSS modules and end-users to make use of various forms of information and knowledge,
3. extracting and processing of data from traditional sources as well as remote sensing
4. integrating methodologies into forest DSSs that will enhance the ability to support social learning and participation”.

Subtasks

1. Review of multifunctional planning issues and DSS functional criteria
2. Evaluation of forest DSS case studies
3. Procedural framework and guidelines on good practices

Working programs

s. working programs from 2009

Lisbon, 19-21 April 2010 - Workshop on Decision Support Systems in Sustainable Forest Management

s. DSFM 2010 webpage

Thessaloniki meeting, 6-7 June 2011

Non exhaustive overview on actors, expertise and expectations related to the development of DSSs

Questions as a basis for the presentations held during the meeting

1. How is your developer team composed and organized in order to develop computer-based tools? What is your role ?
2. What are the computer-based tools that the developer team has already developed or is yet to develop, and who are the (potential) users of these tools ? Which of these tools are considered as DSSs and why ? 
3. What is the IT-environment of these tools and what types of tools are they ?
4. What are the IT-components integrated in the developed tools ? Which kinds of techniques are used to ensure decision support? How is interoperability ensured ? How is the user-friendliness of the GUI ensured ?
5. What sort of methodology is applied to develop the tools (reference) ? How is the development process structured ? What are the main modelling techniques used to design the IT-solutions ?
6. How does the team ensure the proper transfer of the tools to potential users ? How is the proper maintenance of the tools ensured and how is the support for users organised ?
7. Are stakeholders involved in the development of the tools ? If so, who, when, how, which role/function?
8. What is specific to sustainable forest management (SFM) in the development of the tools ? What were the adaptations, respectively the extensions you made to the generic development of computer-based tools ?
9. What is the effective contribution of the tools to SFM ? What was/is essential to ensure this effective contribution ? What are the key factors for success ? Check-list ?
10. What are the recommendations you propose to ensure the proper development of DSSs for SFM ?  Do guidelines to develop and apply DSSs already exist ?

Presentations

• The Finnish MELA System ; Tuula Nuutinen
• Presentation on the development of DSS in Spain ; Antoni Trasobares
• Institute of Mathematical Problems in Biology of Russian Academy of Science; Larisa Khanina
• UCD Forestry Ireland; Maarten Nieuwenhuis
• SIMO SIMO; Jussi Rasinmäki
• Planeamento do transporte de madeira integrado com a recepção fabril; Alexandra Marques, José Borges
• Development of DSS in France; Sebastien Cavaignac
• Agricultural Research Council; Fabrizio Ferretti, Massimo Bianchi, Paolo Cantiani, Isabella De Meo, Alessandro Paletto !
• WIS.2, Christian Rosset !

! not presented during the meeting because of lack of time

Organisation of the WIKI content

System overview

• Thematic and users' perspectives > main questions > checklist > properties of the DSSs > WIKI content and its organisation
• Form: mulitple-choice questions for the description of a DSS
• Text: prose for the description of a DSS
• Form and text are complementary
• Queries: mainly based on the multiple-choice questions, but also if available on the semantic tags in the text

WIKI users's perspective - main questions

Researchers:

• Given a certain problem, has this problem been addressed ?
• If yes, which techniques have been used to solve this problem ?
• Who are the contact person ? And documentation, where is it available ?
• What is the accessibility to the source code ?

Developers:

• System status ?
• Technology stack (Programming, communication architecture, ...) ?
• Utilisation domain / performances ?

Decision makers / stakeholders:

• I have a problem ...
• Translate > FORSYS Dim
• Wizard > go through the DSS available to address the problem

Case studies

s. the related wiki page