Title: Supporting decisions for the application of combined natural and engineered systems for water treatment and reuse

Authors: G. Arampatzis; P-M. Stathatou; P. Scaloubakas; D. Assimacopoulos

Addresses: School of Production Engineering and Management, Technical University of Crete, University Campus, Akrotiri, 73100 Chania, Greece ' School of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Zografou Campus, 15780 Athens, Greece ' School of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Zografou Campus, 15780 Athens, Greece ' School of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Zografou Campus, 15780 Athens, Greece

Abstract: Combined natural and engineered systems (cNES) for water/wastewater treatment are well suited for application in many rural and semi-rural areas, especially those with water demand and wastewater production peaks related to tourism, farming and their nexus. The planning, implementation and operation of cNES is not a trivial task. A decision support system for the implementation of cNES, based on a user-oriented approach, is presented. Decision support is organised not into tools or tasks, but into a set of services targeted all potential user types, identified and parameterised through user's analysis. Six decision-making stages identified, leading to the specification of three generic types of services: 1) an information service, based on a knowledge repository; 2) a suite of tools service, implemented as a sustainable ecosystem of decision support tools; 3) a guidance service, based on a knowledge reasoning system that identifies typical application cases and produces analytic roadmaps towards achieving user goals.

Keywords: cNES; DSS; user-oriented; decision services; knowledge repository; mathematical modelling; knowledge reasoning; roadmaps; environmental impact assessment; water resources management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJDSS.2019.104566

International Journal of Decision Support Systems, 2019 Vol.4 No.2, pp.96 - 114

Received: 06 Jan 2019
Accepted: 10 Aug 2019

Published online: 20 Jan 2020 *

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