The Nijhum Dwip DSS

A Decision Support System (DSS) has been developed by EGIS in co-operation with Resource Analysis of the Netherlands. The objective of building this demonstration DSS is to acquire experience in the development of DSSs and to demonstrate their potential for Integrated Coastal Zone Management in Bangladesh. It is not intended for use in support of any real-life decision-making process.

The Nijhum Dwip Integrated Development Project (NDIDP) was taken as a case study to demonstrate the utility of a DSS. The Meghna Estuary Study (MES) has done a feasibility study for an integrated development project for the South Hatia and Nijhum Dwip area. The project includes construction of cross dams to enhance accretion, construction of embankments to protect land from tides and storms, landuse allocations for old and new land inside and outside embankments and development projects for settlements, aquaculture, livestock, etc. The feasibility study estimated costs involved in all the different components of the project and also estimated accretion due to construction of cross dams as well as impacts of the other components of the project. These data are used as the basis for the Nijhum Dwip DSS. However, many assumptions are made within the computational models of the DSS that do not actually match those of the feasibility study. As the demo-DSS focuses on interactive analysis of management options, the results of analysis are presented for comparison between the options rather than as absolute values.

See http://www.resource.nl/uk/index.cgi?page=downloads/demos/index.html for the demo-DSS