Sustainable decision-making environment: Institutional and technical improvements for spatial decision support systems

Abstract

The quest for a more balanced and sustainable decision-making system has been underway long enough to establish decision support systems (DSS) as its own field. This article addresses the relationship between the theoretical shift in the decision-making environment and the use of DSS in more advanced applications. It examines recent changes in DSS practice and identifies the areas in which further improvements could be made. The article begins with an assessment of current issues concerning different implementations of DSS and then elaborates on existing gaps in the use of DSS, multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA), and spatial MCDA. Finally, it presents a study on the Texas Urban Triangle to examine the differences between a spatial DSS (SDSS) that was supplemented with three proposed improvement tactics and one that used a conventional approach. The results show that the improved SDSS creates a more iterative and interactive process, in which variables are weighted objectively and have a more significant impact on the outcome. In addition, the improved SDSS offers more opportunities for encouraging public participation and creating a collaborative decision-making environment.