DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS FOR ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT SUBJECT OF UNITED NATIONS UNIVERSITY WORKSHOP
Press Release
UNU/171
DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS FOR ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT SUBJECT OF UNITED NATIONS UNIVERSITY WORKSHOP
19960223 NEW YORK, 23 February (UNU) -- A workshop: "Decision Support Systems for Environmentally Sustainable Development" is being held 25 February - 8 March at the United Nations University International Institute for Software Technology in Macau. The workshop was organized by the Institute and sponsored by Canada's International Development Research Centre, the Macau Foundation, and Macau Polytechnic.The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 adopted "Agenda 21", calling for improvement in information support for decision-making in developing countries. This workshop is a contribution to this objective.
In order to develop their economies while protecting the environment, countries need information about available natural resources, current use of resources, land use, drainage, population location and density, and so on. Many areas of the world have suffered when insufficiently researched and expensive mega-schemes have resulted in deforestation, erosion, climate change, water pollution and displaced populations. Merely collecting information is not enough --- it needs to be complete, appropriately organized and readily available. This is the role of computer-based decision support systems, integrated with databases of geographic, demographic and other information. Such systems are needed not only for economic and social development planning, but for rapid and effective responses to natural disasters like floods and earthquakes.
The workshop will bring together experts in computer software technology, environment specialists, and planners and decision makers from the public and private sectors. Experiences from 20 countries covering every continent will be presented, and a number of existing computer systems will be demonstrated and available for participants to experiment with.
This is the first event in a research and training programme on decision support systems for sustainable development. The workshop will be discussing social, cultural and economic aspects of such development, as well as the technical issues, and identifying further research projects, training courses and awareness-building measures. In particular, requirements for computer software will be identified.
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