Environmental Management Information Systems (EMIS) for Sustainable Development: A Conceptual Overview

Environmental management information systems (EMIS) is defined as \u27organizational-technical systems for systematically obtaining, processing, and making available relevant environmental information available in companies\u27. Such systems evolved out of a growing need to manage environmental information in response to internal and external pressures such as regulations, consumers, stockholders, and changes in the business environments. While over the past decade EMIS have proliferated in the corporate landscape, these systems have received little attention within the information systems research community as whole. The objective of this paper is to serve as a tutorial providing a conceptual overview of EMIS, highlighting organizational and technical issues, as well as research opportunities. In this paper we suggest that there are significant and relatively untapped research synergies existing between information systems and environmental management for sustainable development at the organizational and technical levels

ISSEC: A Socio-technical Decision Support System for Information Security Planning

The traditional notion of information security, rooted in a solidly technical foundation, has within the past decade seen wide criticism within academia - much of which has originated from the social sciences community - as being narrow and technology-centric instead of holistic and organizational in its focus. As information security awareness encompasses an ever-greater scope of organizational dynamics, it becomes necessary for us to develop design methodologies and ultimately, systems, capable of dealing practically with the complex and multifaceted nature of the decision-making of information systems security which is entailed by the emerging notions of a new paradigm for security. To this end, we present an architecture which implements a web-based multi-user decision support system (DSS) driven by an operational security model within a qualitative multi-criteria framework that utilizes AHP as its inference engine. The system is then demonstrated in action, by addressing a multi-criteria security control selection decision

ISSEC: A socio-technical DSS for information security planning

The traditional notion of information security, rooted in a solidly technical foundation, has within the past decade seen wide criticism within academia - much of which has originated from the social sciences community - as being narrow and technology-centric instead of holistic and organizational in its focus. As information security awareness encompasses an ever-greater scope of organizational dynamics, it becomes necessary for us to develop design methodologies and ultimately, systems, capable of dealing practically with the complex and multifaceted nature of the decision-making of information systems security which is entailed by the emerging notions of a new paradigm for security. To this end, we present an architecture which implements a web-based multi-user decision support system (DSS) driven by an operational security model within a qualitative multi-criteria framework that utilizes AHP as its inference engine. The system is then demonstrated in action, by addressing a multi-criteria security control selection decision

Decision Support in Information Systems Security

As the structure of modern organizations shifts, so correspondingly must the methodologies which underlie the evaluation and development of the security posture of their information systems. We have witnessed an ever-growing gap between organizational policy and technology. We have also witnessed an ever increasing complexity of decisions regarding the planning and design of IS security. Within this paper, we propose a decision support framework consistent with security and decision theory and develop a model of the decision analysis space suitable for multiple criteria decision making (MCDM). The adoption of MCDM techniques within the context of this model can show inherent trade-offs between alternatives in a security decision, encapsulate qualitative as well as quantitative elements within the analysis space, and facilitate group-decision making thereby dealing with conflicting perspectives of multiple stakeholders. The paper concludes with a demonstration of the proposed model through a case study conducted with a major financial services provider

A Framework for Decision Support in Information Systems Security

As the structure of modern organizations shifts, so correspondingly must the methodologies which underlie the evaluation and development of the security posture of their information systems. We have witnessed an ever-growing gap between organizational policy and technology. We have also witnessed an ever increasing complexity of decisions regarding the planning and design of IS security. Within this paper, we propose a decision support framework consistent with security and decision theory and develop a model of the decision analysis space suitable for multiple criteria decision making (MCDM). The adoption of MCDM techniques within the context of this model can show inherent trade-offs between alternatives in a security decision, encapsulate qualitative as well as quantitative elements within the analysis space, and facilitate group-decision making thereby dealing with conflicting perspectives of multiple stakeholders. The paper concludes with a demonstration of the proposed model through a case study conducted with a major financial services provider

Business Process Re-engineering and Information Security Planning: Opportunities for integration

Business process re-engineering (BPR) has come to recognize a need for the adoption of socio-technical methodologies and capabilities for knowledge representation of qualitative concerns. Security planning and decision-making has a similar need, and furthermore socio-technical methods common to BPR can be usefully applied in this capacity. The introduction of security models like Defense-in- Depth and similar efforts to recognize the organizational impact of security planning in operational security management serve as an initial step in educating security personnel and provide a more comprehensive view, but unfortunately, security decision-making has traditionally relied almost solely upon quantitative risk assessment, cost/benefit mechanisms, and related, functionalistic methodologies. This greatly limits the representational capacity of the decision process, and with it the possible dimensions of analysis in which to consider security issues. Within this paper, we briefly examine security planning and the relevant techniques of BPR and Socio-technical design, and present a framework for their integration within the context of information security. It is our contention that such methodologies can be utilized in the security decision process to facilitate representation of subjective concerns and broadly-defined issues germane to security policy, within an organizational context

A web-based multi-perspective decision support system for information security planning

With the increasing exposure and vulnerability to cyber attacks, it becomes necessary to develop methodologies and systems that are capable of dealing with the complex and multifaceted nature of decision situations encountered in security planning and management. In this paper we present the theoretical basis, architecture and design of a web-based multi-perspective decision support system (DSS) and an underlying decision multi-criteria decision framework that is consistent with security and decision theory. The system is illustrated through a multi-stakeholder scenario that captures the complexity encountered in a multi-criteria security control selection decision problem

Strontium as a tracer of weathering processes in a silicate catchment polluted by acid atmospheric inputs, Strengbach, France

This paper determines the weathering and atmospheric contributions of Ca in surface water from a small spruce forested silicate catchment (N–E France) receiving acid atmospheric inputs. The bedrock is a granite with K-feldspar and albite as dominant phases. The calcium content in plagioclase is low and the Ca/Na ratio in surface water is high, reflecting other sources of calcium from those expected from the weathering of major mineral phases. The biotite content is low. Only traces of apatite were detected while no calcite was found in spite of a major hydrothermal event having affected the granite. The strontium isotopic ratio 87Sr/86Sr and Sr content was used as a tracer of weathering and was determined in minerals and bulk bedrock, open field precipitation, throughfall, soil solution, spring and stream water. The Sr isotopic ratio of the reacting weathering end-member was predicted by simulating the alteration of the granite minerals by incorporating strontium into the water–rock interaction kinetic code KINDIS. In the early stages of water–rock interaction, K-feldspar and biotite strongly influence the isotopic composition of the weathering solution whereas, the Na-rich plagioclase appears to be the main long-term reactive weathering end-member. Approximately 50% of dissolved Sr in streamwater are atmospherically derived. The 87Sr/86Sr ratios of exchangeable Sr in the fine fraction at 1-m depth from a soil profile indicate that the amount of exchangeable Sr seems essentially controlled by atmospheric inputs. The exception is the deep saprolite where weathering processes could supply the Sr (and Ca). Na-Plagioclase weathering obviously control the chemistry and the isotopic composition of surface waters. The weathering of trace mineral plays a secondary role, the exception is for apatite when plagioclase is absent. Our hydrochemical, mineralogical and isotopic investigations show that a major part of the strong Ca losses detected in catchment hydrochemical budgets that result from the neutralization of acid precipitation has an atmospheric origin. Consequently, in the long term, in such areas, the availability of such an exchangeable base cation might be strongly limited and surface waters consequently acidified