Decision Support Systems for Multisectoral Tropical Lake Management in Indonesia

This book highlights the development of DSS and presents their application and the lessons learned from the obtained silver lining.  The novel DSS integrates silo models (hydrology, water quality, fisheries, species distribution models, GIS, and economic models), manifests the spirit of interdisciplinary studies, and bridges academic sovereignty is the principal appeal of the book. Moreover, the science, the interplaying governance system, and the challenges behind the development of the DSS are fascinating as they provide valuable lessons for lake-related scientists and decision-makers, suggesting that the book can be both informative and beneficial for practitioners and academicians, particularly in the Global South countries.

The digital era has brought transformative decision-making around the globe. However, adopting decision-support systems is lagging in lake management, particularly in the Global South nations. The lakes, typically in tropical regions, undergo massive anthropogenic and natural pressures, creating intense degradation under uncertain conditions. This circumstance is further exacerbated by the lack of evidence and data to aid the decision-making process.

Indonesia, home to more than 800 tropical lakes, is a great reference for understanding the situation. The large demography, growing economy, relatively low human resources development index, and increased extreme weather have simultaneously pressurized its lake ecosystems. Therefore, eutrophication, sedimentation, and conflicts over water use are the country’s common stories. Further, there have been very scarce evidence-based decision-making processes in the lake planning and monitoring system.  Hence, developing a user-friendly decision support system (DSS) is imperative in the regions.

Klaus Glenk is an environmental and resource economics professor and leads the Sustainable Ecosystems Team at Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC). He has 20 years of experience in applied cost-benefit analysis of environmental policy interventions, including climate change mitigation and adaptation in agriculture, biodiversity conservation and water management. Prof Glenk’s research has been published in leading disciplinary and interdisciplinary journals and focuses on the micro-analysis of consumer and household decisions. He has extensive experience in the methodological development and application of stated preference methods, particularly choice experiments, and cost-benefit analysis. Another strand of work includes investigating resource use decisions, technology choice and contract design for incentive-based land management schemes such as payments for ecosystem services of farm households in Europe and the Global South. Recent work also covers issues of demand for (food) products with sustainability and health claims. Prof Glenk has been involved in research projects covering a broad range of environmental, food and land management issues within Europe (Spain, Germany, UK), Asia (China, Indonesia, Myanmar), Sub-Saharan Africa (Kenya, Uganda) and South America (Brazil).

Ivana Yuniarti is a researcher in the Research Center for Limnology and Water Resources Management at the Republic of Indonesia National Research and Innovation Agency.  She has 15 years of experience in interdisciplinary approaches to tropical lake management. Her works range from ecological modeling to ecological-economic methods (cost side and stated preference methods). She has published in both disciplinary and multidisciplinary journals. Her current projects include the development of lake decision support systems in Indonesia. Her previous research was mostly in Southeast Asian Countries (i.e., Thailand and Indonesia).