Framework for a spatial Decision Support Tool for policy and decision making

The main challenge of developing of a spatial DST (Decision Support Tool) to support the decision making on future livestock production will not be a technical one, but instead a challenge of meeting the con-text requirements of the tool, such as the characteristics of the country-specific spatial plan-ning and decision-making process, the wishes of the potential users of the tool and its output as well as the country-specific policies and regulations. The spatial DST which is being pro-posed in this report therefore does not include complex and state-of-the-art GIS techniques, but instead tries to be as clear and simple as possible, in order to give the potential users a full understanding during the analysis process and with using the output of the tool. A spatial DST can easily become a ‘black box’ if the users do not fully understand the limita-tions of the tool and its output. Despite the fact that output maps of GIS systems may look very detailed and suggest a high degree of accuracy, they are often not. This will entirely de-pend on the availability of reliable and detailed input data. Most likely, many of the produced output maps should be used in an indicative way only. Therefore, the output of the spatial DST needs to be accompanied by supporting information on the reliability of the output and the shortcomings due to unreliable or missing input data, as well as the consequences for use of the output. Therefore, a comprehensive meta-data assessment system is proposed as an in-tegrated part of the spatial DST. The distribution of the output will also require tools to pro-duce more sketch-like presentations, e.g. using fuzzy borders and aggregated maps, which are another important feature of the spatial DST

Decision support tool for spatial planning and decision making; Technical support. Consultant report on the joint project mission held in SE Asia from 13th to 24th April 2007

Together with delegations of the World Bank and FAO, who carried out a project supervision mission, the consultant Gerrit Carsjens and FAO-LEAD officer Pierre Gerber carried out a technical support mission to Vietnam, Thailand and Guangdong from April 13 to 24 2007. In each country the mission comprised: 1. A workshop with invited experts on the possibilities and needs of a spatial Decision Support Tool (DST) in the form of a GIS computer model. 2. Expert consultations about potential collaborations. Important conclusions from the workshops can be summarized as follows: there is a keen interest for a spatial DST in all the countries. However it will have to take into account the needs of users at national as well as the more local level. The DST should be a tool to support strategic planning and decision making at national level as well as decision making on the allocation of livestock farms at the local level

Sustainable Planning of Land Use Changes in farming areas under ecological protection

Land use has been changing in the last decades because of agricultural intensification and land abandonment which implies deterioration in the optimum habitat structure and quality. Habitat degradation and loss, resulting from changes in land use remain significant drivers of biodiversity loss. These trends are widely recognised and have forced national and international agencies to identify protected sites for natural areas with high biodiversity value. Special Protection Areas (SPAs) are natural zones particularly relevant for nature conservation. Regional planning is bound to play an increasing role in nature conservation policies because much biodiversity is located in farming areas outside natural parks. Agriculture in the Mediterranean Basin has always been highly dependent on rainfed crops, cereal, vine and olive. Vine growing plays an important role not only from the economic point of view, but also environmentally as a permanent plant cover in terms of preventing erosion, managing land and water resources in a sustainable way, defending against desertification an settling population in rural areas. A Geographic Information System (GIS) was used to implement a decision tool system to analyse the feasibility of new proposals to upgrade traditional vineyards in Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. The study focuses on the sustainability of current farming practices in Special Protection Areas for Steppe Land Birds. This paper presents a model to quantify the resulting habitat fragmentation basing on infrastructure facilities, leading to mapping areas where to apply restriction measures to prevent physical destruction of the habita

Supporting strategic spatial planning : planning support systems for the spatial planning of metropolitan landscapes

Een belangrijke opgave voor de ruimtelijke planning is en balans te vinden tussen de toegenomen druk op de open groene ruimte door verstedelijking en economische ontwikkeling enerzijds, en de noodzaak van het behouden van deze landelijke gebieden voor natuur, recreatie, landschap en voedselproductie anderzijds. Dit complexe vraagstuk kan niet worden opgelost met behulp van lokale participatieve planning alleen. De afgelopen decennia is een groeiend aantal computersystemen ontwikkeld ter ondersteuning, het zogenaamde Planning Support System (PSS). Doel van dit proefschrift is het gebruik van PSS in strategische ruimtelijke planning te verkenne