Crossing the Death Valley to Transfer Environmental Decision Support Systems to the Water Market

• Published in: Global challenges Vol. 1; no. 3; pp. 1700009 - n/a
• Main Authors: Poch, Manel, Comas, Joaquim, Cortés, Ulises, Sànchez‐Marrè, Miquel, Rodríguez‐Roda, Ignasi
• Format: Journal Article Publication
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken John Wiley & Sons, Inc 17-04-2017; John Wiley and Sons Inc; Wiley
• Subjects: adoption; Artificial intelligence; death valley; Decision support systems; development; EDSS; Environmental impact; Explotació; Informàtica; Intel·ligència artificial; Markets; Recursos hidràulics; Sistemes d'ajuda a la decisió; water; Water markets; Water resources development; Àrees temàtiques de la UPC
• ISSN: 2056-6646; 2056-6646
• DOI: 10.1002/gch2.201700009

Environmental decision support systems (EDSSs) are attractive tools to cope with the complexity of environmental global challenges. Several thoughtful reviews have analyzed EDSSs to identify the key challenges and best practices for their development. One of the major criticisms is that a wide and generalized use of deployed EDSSs has not been observed. The paper briefly describes and compares four case studies of EDSSs applied to the water domain, where the key aspects involved in the initial conception and the use and transfer evolution that determine the final success or failure of these tools (i.e., market uptake) are identified. Those aspects that contribute to bridging the gap between the EDSS science and the EDSS market are highlighted in the manuscript. Experience suggests that the construction of a successful EDSS should focus significant efforts on crossing the death‐valley toward a general use implementation by society (the market) rather than on development.
Efforts must be focused on the use and transfer to market step to deal with the key challenges contributing on bridging the gap between a good academic environmental decision support systems and a good market tool with a generalized use and/or implementation: Problem ownership and end user engagement, longevity and financial sustainability, and trust and evaluation.