Improving spatial decision support systems: methodological developments for natural resources and land management

The use of geographic information systems (GIS) in the past two decades helped in formulating and solving spatial decision-making problems. In spite of their huge capacities in the acquisition and the storage of spatial data, GIS have some limits when it is a matter of solving semi-structured problems that represent most real-world spatial decision cases. The improvement of GIS analytic capacities can provide support required in multiple decision-making phases. We use advanced spatial analysis techniques applied to raster data representing a set of constraints that may be encountered in a land management project. Digital maps and a digital elevation model (DEM) have been used to produce the constraint spatial database for the case study. Each spatial feature had been subject to an evaluation process and a utility value was given to represent its tolerance to the management project according to the constraints identified previously. Results obtained from this methodology have been compared to conventional cases of suitability mapping from the original set of constraint maps. Results show that suitability maps for the management project derived from this study represent multiple scenarios leading to the improvement of the design and choice phases of decision-making process.