Developing a Decision Support System for Participatory and Integrated Management of the Chel-Chai Watershed, Golestan Province

Watershed is a complex and dynamic system and is considered to be a planning and management unit. It is important to consider all technical, social, economic, physical, ecological and administrative dimensions in the process of planning and management of watersheds. Given the fact that there are complex interactions among these dimensions, implementing integrated watershed assessment and management is required to integrate these various disciplines. Usually stakeholders in a watershed deal with different information and decision choices that make it difficult for them to make a conclusive decision. Additionally, it is necessary to allow stakeholders to participate into decision making process and express their views across all stages of the process. Decision Support Systems (DSSs) as a computer-based tool box, assist stakeholders to reach their final informative decision. A DSS basically consists of models, database, and a user interface. This paper refers to a prototype DSS developed for the Chel-chai watershed in Golestan province using the Interactive Component Modeling System (ICMS) software. A user friendly interface has been developed for non-technical users to communicate with the DSS. This DSS is able to facilitate the integrated and participatory watershed management by improving the system understanding of stakeholders, introducing management activities in the form of different management scenarios, and predicting the various impacts of the scenarios graphically based on different indices (social acceptance, gross margin, variable costs, soil erosion, runoff volume, weighted mean patch size index, and weighted land cover area index). The management activities include terracing, orchard development, agroforestry, forage cultivation, and tree planting. Thus, through integrating different biophysical and socio-economic disciplines of watershed, the DSS developed in this research can assist stakeholders in the process of decision making.