Model-based decision support for integrated management and control of coastal lagoons

This paper addresses some results obtained within the EU funded project DITTY as concerns the development of a decision support system for the management of Southern European lagoons. The first contribution is a general model-based decision support structure, whose development was motivated by the need for a common and flexible framework to ease the integration of the outputs of different project work-packages, as well as to deal with the diversity of socio-economic and environmental characteristics of the project case studies. The proposed structure helps integrate and manage in a clear and structured fashion the information provided by different kinds of mathematical and analytical models (e.g., biogeochemical, hydrodynamic, ecological, socio-economic models of a lagoon ecosystem). Data and information obtained from the models can be used to accomplish the decision task by application of multicriteria analysis approaches. Robustness of the decision with respect to external factors beyond the control of the decision maker, is considered. As a second contribution, a real application of the proposed decision support structure to the management of clam farming in the Sacca di Goro lagoon (Italy), is described.