Chapter 3 Decision Support Model (IUWS-DSM) - Tubdok

Chapter 3 · Decision Support Model (IUWS-DSM) 49
Chapter 3 Decision Support Model (IUWS-DSM)
Based on the conception introduced in the last chapter, a decision support model for
IUWS, namely IUWS-DSM, is conceived and constructed. The system structure and
executable planning procedure are established, the decision making mechanisms and rules
are developed, and the methods of calculation and comparison are introduced regarding
system costs and energy consumption. Consequently, the concept to realise the IUWS-DSM
in the software is proposed.
3.1 Architecture of IUWS-DSM
The basic idea is to build up a simple but functional DSM. The model should have a
simple framework, as well as be easily realised in software. Moreover, the model should
have the potential to be further developed in the future.
Figure 24 lays out the architecture of the decision support model (IUWS-DSM). The thick
hollow arrows indicate the model procedure that is situated on the left side in Figure 24. The
blocks on the right side represent the software components for managing the information and
processing the data. Following the model procedure, first the project information is requested,
which needs to be input by model users. Then the calculation is performed, which consists of
two parts that are water usage management and WIS. The related information, such as
EUWUP and water standards, etc., is acquired from the database that is set up independently.
Then the system options are compared. For both calculation and comparison the
necessary decision making policies are used. It can step back to calculation as the revision
to water system may be needed after comparison. Finally, the optimised system options and
suggestion are feedback to the model users. In the steps of calculation and comparison, the
interaction between model users and the model can be necessary, which is indicated by
dashed lines in Figure 24.
The components on the right side in Figure 24 are for constructing the software. The
database is used to store the information and data. Three types of data containers are
identified, i.e. for project information, for general information, and for knowledge base.
Project information is the private information belonging to each project, where general
information is the sharable public information, e.g. EUWUP and water standards, etc. By
definition, Knowledge base is the database containing the knowledge with which the
inference engine draws conclusions (Giarratano and Riley 2005). Those conclusions are the
expertise that the model users query. In the IUWS-DSM, it is used to manage the information