Integrated Decision Support Tool for Evaluating Transit and Land-Use Coordination Policies

1997 ◽  
Vol 1604 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-31
Author(s):  
Thomas D. Fox ◽  
William Bowlby
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Decision Support ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Decision Support Tool ◽  
Quality Analysis ◽  
Forecasting Model ◽  
Transit Oriented Development ◽  
Support Tool ◽  
Travel Forecasting ◽  
Wide Range

Policy makers in many urban areas have begun to embrace the principles of transit-oriented development as a means to create more livable communities and of light rail transit as a means to address congestion and air-quality problems. A policy-oriented screening tool for applying rigorous technical analyses to transit-oriented development policies to give decision makers meaningful information about a wide range of potential land-use, transit service and financing, and parking management policies is described. The decision support tool (DST) uses a simplified version of the regional travel forecasting model and includes an air-quality analysis module. The DST was validated to the Memphis regional travel forecasting model, and enhancements were incorporated for studying the effects of specific land-use, transit, and parking-policy assumptions. DST provides policy-related output data such as percentage of development in the corridor; transit ridership; annual transit operating cost, revenue, deficit, and cost recovery ratio; annual transit capital cost; and air-quality benefits. A sample application of the model for the Poplar Corridor in Memphis, Tennessee, is presented.

A decision support tool for the assessment of air quality in urban areas: An application for Athens, Greece

1999 ◽  
Vol 69 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 31-42
Author(s):  
D. Deligiorgi ◽  
C. Cartalis ◽  
G. Kouroupetroglou ◽  
C. Moutselos ◽  
E. Kambitsi
Keyword(s):  
Decision Support ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Decision Support Tool ◽  
Support Tool

scholarly journals A Shoreline Response Program (SRP) Decision Support Tool based on the Geographic Variability in Attenuation and Weathering of Stranded Oil.

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ed Owens ◽  
Elliott Taylor ◽  
Chunjiang An ◽  
Zhi Chen ◽  
George Danner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Support ◽  
Web Application ◽  
Treatment Options ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Treatment Strategies ◽  
Decision Support Tool ◽  
Data Bases ◽  
Support Tool ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Wide Range

ABSTRACT #1141234 The coastal waters of Canada embrace a wide range of physical environments and ecosystems from the warm, sediment-rich waters of the Bay of Fundy to the nutrient-limited cold waters of the high Arctic. This range of biophysical characteristics impacts natural attenuation and weathering processes for oil stranded on shorelines. This study was conducted to: 1) identify and quantify the primary regional parameters that control shoreline oil translocation (removal) processes and pathways and 2) define the effectiveness and environmental consequences of current and potential oiled shoreline treatment strategies and tactics. A specific knowledge gap, here and elsewhere in the world, has been in understanding how the distribution and character of fine-grained sediments affect stranded oil attenuation. Fine-grained sediments (<1mm) can play a critical role in natural or induced (that is, shoreline treatment) oil dispersal. Shoreline sediment samples were collected and analyzed from representative locations on Arctic, Atlantic, and Pacific Ocean beaches to provide a broad geographic characterization of mineral fines at the regional level. This knowledge is the basis for an “Oiled Shoreline Response Program (SRP) Decision Support Tool” to aid spill scientists, students, environmental resource managers, spill responders and the public in understanding the response methods and the ramifications and consequences of their shoreline treatment options without the need to digest technical papers, large reports, or data bases. This MPRI SRP Decision Support Tool is intended to be a dynamic, interactive, multi-layered, geographically and seasonally-based model for shoreline oil spill response decision analyses. A goal of this interactive model is to move away from the traditional static format of learning from explanations in text reports and publications to an interactive tool that encourages its users to explore and fully understand the significance of the different environmental factors outlined in publications and data bases. Recent advances in web technology make this possible. The development of user interface platforms such as React, libraries such as D3, and notebook forms like Observable has created a palette of technologies that together make web application patterns such as Documodels a much more streamlined development process. The power of this medium is to convey a complex subject and to enable a user to grasp keen insights and so understand the consequences of intervention decisions.

Lessons learned from the implementation of the near real-time S2S4E Decision Support Tool

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lluís Palma ◽  
Andrea Manrique ◽  
Llorenç Lledó ◽  
Andria Nicodemou ◽  
Pierre-Antoine Bretonnière ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Support ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Decision Support Tool ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Cloud Infrastructure ◽  
Time Service ◽  
Support Tool ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Prediction Systems

<p>Under the context of the H2020 S2S4E project, industrial and research partners co-developed a fully-operational Decision Support Tool (DST) providing during 18 months near real-time subseasonal and seasonal  forecasts tailored to the specific needs of the renewable energy sector. The tool aimed to breach the last mile gap between climate information and the end-user by paying attention to the interaction with agents from the sector, already used to work with weather information, and willing to extend their forecasting horizon by incorporating climate predictions into their daily operations.</p><p>With this purpose, the tool gathered a heterogeneous dataset of seven different essential climate variables and nine energy indicators, providing for each of them bias-adjusted probabilistic information paired with a reference skill metric. To achieve this, data from state-of-the-art prediction systems and reanalysis needed to be downloaded and post-processed, fulfilling a set of quality requirements that ensure the proper functioning of the operational service. During the design, implementation, and testing phases, a wide range of scientific and technical choices had to be made, making clear the difficulties of transferring scientific research to a user-oriented real-time service. A brief showcase will be presented, exemplifying the different tools, methodologies, and best practices applied to the data workflow, together with a case study performed in Oracle’s cloud infrastructure. We expect that by making a clear description of the process and the problems encountered, we will provide a valuable experience for both, upcoming attempts of similar implementations, and the organizations providing data from climate models and reanalysis.</p>

scholarly journals A systematic conservation planning approach to maintaining ecosystem service provision in working landscapes

FACETS ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 1570-1600
Author(s):  
Jérôme Cimon-Morin ◽  
Jean-Olivier Goyette ◽  
Poliana Mendes ◽  
Stéphanie Pellerin ◽  
Monique Poulin
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Decision Support ◽  
Conservation Planning ◽  
Decision Support Tool ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Efficient Production ◽  
Systematic Conservation Planning ◽  
Support Tool ◽  
Working Landscapes ◽  
Trade Offs

Balancing human well-being with the maintenance of ecosystem services (ES) for future generations has become one of the central sustainability challenges of the 21st century. In working landscapes, past and ongoing production-centered objectives have resulted in the conversion of ecosystems into simple land-use types, which has also altered the provision of most ES. These inevitable trade-offs between the efficient production of individual provisioning ES and the maintenance of regulating and cultural ES call for the development of a land-use strategy based on the multifunctional use of the landscape. Due to the heterogeneous nature of working landscapes, both protection and restoration actions are needed to improve their multifunctionality. Systematic conservation planning (SCP) offers a decision support framework that can support landscape multifunctionality by indicating where ES management efforts should be implemented. We describe an approach that we developed to include ES provision protection and restoration objectives in SCP with the goal of providing ongoing benefits to society. We explain the general framework of this approach and discuss concepts, challenges, innovations, and prospects for the further development of a comprehensive decision support tool. We illustrate our approach with two case studies implemented in the pan-Canadian project ResNet.

A novel toolkit to streamline Land Use Land Cover change assessment in the SWAT+ model to enhance flood management and infrastructure decisions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Rigby ◽  
Sopan Patil ◽  
Panagiotis Ritsos
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Decision Support ◽  
Swat Model ◽  
Decision Support Tool ◽  
Flood Management ◽  
Land Use Land Cover ◽  
End User ◽  
Support Tool ◽  
Lulc Changes ◽  
Hydrological Impacts

<p>Land Use Land Cover (LULC) change is widely recognised as one of the most important factors impacting river basin hydrology.  It is therefore imperative that the hydrological impacts of various LULC changes are considered for effective flood management strategies and future infrastructure decisions within a catchment.  The Soil and Water assessment Tool (SWAT) has been used extensively to assess the hydrological impacts of LULC change.  Areas with assumed homogeneous hydrologic properties, based on their LULC, soil type and slope, make up the basic computational units of SWAT known as the Hydrologic Response Units (HRUs).  LULC changes in a catchment are typically modelled by SWAT through alterations to the input files that define the properties of these HRUs.  However, to our knowledge at least, the process of making such changes to the SWAT input files is often cumbersome and non-intuitive.  This affects the useability of SWAT as a decision support tool amongst a wider pool of applied users (e.g., engineering teams in environmental regulatory agencies and local authorities).  In this study, we seek to address this issue by developing a user-friendly toolkit that will: (1) allow the end user to specify, through a Graphical User Interface (GUI), various types of LULC changes at multiple locations within their study catchment, (2) run the SWAT+ model (the latest version of SWAT) with the specified LULC changes, and (3) enable interactive visualisation of the different SWAT+ output variables to quantify the hydrological impacts of these scenarios.  Importantly, our toolkit does not require the end user to have any operational knowledge of the SWAT+ model to use it as a decision support tool.  Our toolkit will be trialled at 15 catchments in Gwynedd county, Wales, which has experienced multiple occurrences of high flood events, and consequent economic damage, in the recent past.  We anticipate this toolkit to be a valuable addition to the decision-making processes of Gwynedd County Council for the planning and development of future flood alleviation schemes as well as other infrastructure projects.</p>

scholarly journals Developing a decision support tool for assessing land use change and BMPs in ungauged watersheds based on decision rules provided by SWAT simulation

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (7) ◽  
pp. 3789-3806 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junyu Qi ◽  
Sheng Li ◽  
Charles P.-A. Bourque ◽  
Zisheng Xing ◽  
Fan-Rui Meng
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Decision Support ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Best Management Practices ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Hydrological Modeling ◽  
Decision Support Tool ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Support Tool ◽  
Ungauged Watersheds

Abstract. Decision making on water resources management at ungauged, especially large-scale watersheds relies on hydrological modeling. Physically based distributed hydrological models require complicated setup, calibration, and validation processes, which may delay their acceptance among decision makers. This study presents an approach to develop a simple decision support tool (DST) for decision makers and economists to evaluate multiyear impacts of land use change and best management practices (BMPs) on water quantity and quality for ungauged watersheds. The example DST developed in the present study was based on statistical equations derived from Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) simulations and applied to a small experimental watershed in northwest New Brunswick. The DST was subsequently tested against field measurements and SWAT simulations for a larger watershed. Results from DST could reproduce both field data and model simulations of annual stream discharge and sediment and nutrient loadings. The relative error of mean annual discharge and sediment, nitrate–nitrogen, and soluble-phosphorus loadings were −6, −52, 27, and −16 %, respectively, for long-term simulation. Compared with SWAT, DST has fewer input requirements and can be applied to multiple watersheds without additional calibration. Also, scenario analyses with DST can be directly conducted for different combinations of land use and BMPs without complex model setup procedures. The approach in developing DST can be applied to other regions of the world because of its flexible structure.

The GrassGro decision support tool: its effectiveness in simulating pasture and animal production and value in determining research priorities

2000 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 247 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. G. Clark ◽  
J. R. Donnelly ◽  
A. D. Moore
Keyword(s):  
Decision Support ◽  
Growth Models ◽  
Research Priorities ◽  
Decision Support Tool ◽  
Animal Production ◽  
Grazing Management ◽  
Rooting Depth ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Support Tool ◽  
Wide Range

The GrassGro decision support tool combines animal intake and nutrition models, soil moisture and pasture growth models with management rules. GrassGro simulates pasture and animal production using a wide range of pasture species and sheep and cattle enterprises. Data from the Temperate Pasture Sustainability Key Program grazing management sites were used to validate the predictions of GrassGro. The pasture and animal production from a diverse range of sites were successfully simulated. Limitations of GrassGro were identified (parameter sets not available for some pasture species, inability to simulate clumpy swards, rudimentary interspecies competition model) and some improvements were made to its performance (improved species parameter sets and improved modeling of rooting depth). Recommendations are made on priority areas of research to improve GrassGro and on improvements in methodology which could be adopted by future programs like Temperate Pasture Sustainability Key Program.

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