Ottawa, Canada, January 20, 2010 -- iEMSS the International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software announces a new Workshop “Tales of Adoption: How and why are DSS successful in environmental and related sectors”. This Workshop is part of the Congress to be held 5-8 July in Ottawa, Canada.

“Concerns persist that DSS tools fail more often than succeed in being adopted by the intended end users. Contemporary environmental concerns including cross-border pollution and integrated resource management under conditions of climate change require larger, multi-scale, complex modeling efforts”, says Brian McIntosh, Cranfield University, UK. Such concerns must be addressed but present significant challenges to the achievement of successful adoption of Decision Support Systems. This workshop will present a number of case studies of successful DSS adoption in environmental and related sectors, such as agriculture, fisheries, production and environmental health sectors. Each case study will review DSS adoption as a process rather than as a single event with the aim of teasing out the factors which influence adoption in context.

The workshop will be organized based on a matrix framework using two perspectives: a) type of DSS application, and b) subject area / context of application. The subject application areas in scope will include all relevant areas of environmental sciences, including, but not limited to waste, environmental pollution, water management, climate change, environmental planning, environmental chemistry. In addition, also DSS applications in bordering sectors are in scope, such sectors being, but not limited to, forestry, oceans and fisheries, agriculture, environmental health, sustainable production and consumption.

What have been key factors for successful adoption of DSS in these various sectors? What have been pitfalls with adoption and application of DSS? What are key learnings on the adoption process across these various sectors? This workshop will aim to address these questions and issues.

The goal of this workshop is to deliver key insights for DSS developers to create a deeper understanding what the real uses and needs are for DSSs.

For more information contact the Organizers:

Marten Stavenga (m.stavenga@maralte.com)

Brian S. McIntosh (B.McIntosh@cranfield.ac.uk )

Or visit the website at:

http://www.iemss.org/iemss2010/page31.html