Models in Policy Formulation and Assessment: The WadBOS Decision-Support System - Environmental Modelling: Finding Simplicity in Complexity - page 344

below). The input maps can be prepared in a commercial
GIS package and imported intoWadBOS. Once imported,
each input map can be interactively edited by means of
an appropriate editor. Thus, spatial policy measures can
be localized and tried out. The interactive generation of
the Zoning and Suitability maps is supported by means
of the OVERLAY-Tool. OVERLAY and ANALYSE, and
many other similar instruments are part of the Toolbase
of WadBOS. This is the subject of the next section.

compare maps (ANALYSE-Tool), and carry out
sensitivity analysis (MONTE-CARLO Tool) interac-
tively, puts great analytical power in the hands of the
end-user.
• Evaluation tools support the user in their choice of a
'best' solution. WadBOS features to that effect Score
Tables, and will be equipped with a Multi Criteria
Analysis Tool in its next version. A built-in Goal
Seeking Tool presents, based on a sensitivity analysis,
the dependency of state variables on policy relevant
parameters in the integrated model. When searching
for potential solutions, it reduces greatly the parameter
space to be analyzed.

21.6 The toolbase

In the DSS, it is the role of the models to provide an
adequate and truthful representation of the real-world
system and it is the role of the tools to enable the decision
maker to work with the models. The user will hardly be
aware of the fact that s/he is using a tool when he is editing
a parameter and a map or view a variable graphed against
time. However, without tools, the most sophisticated
model is nothing but a number cruncher, running out of
control, drowning its user in a lake of numbers.
Most of the tools available in WadBOS are standard in
the GEONAMICA DSS Generator, hence were readily
available for integration. In this overview the tools are
ordered relative to the type of task they carry out in
WadBOS. A distinction is made between: input tools,
output tools, exploration tools, and evaluation tools (see
Table 21.1).

According to the function the system is to carry out
in the policymaking process (see section on the functions
of WabBOS) the tools play a more or less pronounced
role. From Table 21.1 it is clear that the analyst uses
the near complete set extensively. S/he needs both the
very down-to-earth instruments for entering data, and
viewing output as well as the sophisticated instruments
for evaluating the output. When the main purpose of
WadBOS is communication , pertinent output instruments
are very essential. The learner is foremost interested in
transparent input and output tools and the documen-
tation systems. Finally for the library function , a good
documentation system is paramount, as are facilities to
quickly enter, update and retrieve the information stored
in the library.

• Among the input tools are the typical editors for chang-
ing single numbers, or series of numbers in a textual or
graphical manner. As part of the latter, the table editor,
which enables entering 2-D relations as a curve, and the
map editors are very essential and powerful instruments
in WadBOS, but so are the tools to open, close, import,
and export files, scenarios and policy exercises.
• The output tools fulfil the difficult task of presenting
the massive amounts of data generated interactively in
as concise and precise a manner as possible. For pre-
senting dynamic spatial data interactively, fast dynamic
mapping facilities are available. For storing simulation
results and enabling their in depth analysis at a later
stage, WadBOS features recorders and players of ani-
mated maps, tools for storing dynamic map output in
so-called. LOGfiles, and tools to write results in a linked
MS Excel spreadsheet.
• Exploration tools enable the user to search the solution
space interactively. The capacity to generate scenarios
and to produce map overlays

21.7 The database

Given the fact that none of the models incorporated in
WadBOS requires data from an online-connection to an
external database or to amonitoring system , the integration
of data has been implemented by means of a stand-alone
database . In fact, the original geographical information is
generated, maintained and stored in the GIS system of the
National Institute for Coastal andMarineManagement. A
dedicated reduced version of this database is distributed
with WadBOS. It is renewed when better quality data
become available. The economic and ecological data are
obtained from a wide variety of sources, some of which
were not originally in digital format, and have been added
to the database. When used, WadBOS entirely takes care
of the retrieval and storage of its data: new or additional
information is entered via the dialogues of the system and
is stored in a hierarchically organized directory structure.
In addition, all the data files are in a readable format (OVERLAY-Tool),