Designing a Management-Oriented Watershed Simulation Environment

The State of Illinois is investing in the development of a citizen-oriented watershed simulation environment. This Web-based system will provide users - resource managers, watershed management committees, and other resource professionals - with the necessary simulation models to allow them to compare, evaluate, and adapt strategies according to their economic, ecologic, and social consequences. Phase one of the project entails the development of draft user and programmer manuals that will be used to solicit user feedback and to develop consensus among developers. This document explores approaches that have been used to create end-user based decision support systems. Most of these systems have not been used because they approach development from the perspective of scientists. We argue that designing a system from the perspective of the target user, without regard to available models, is necessary for us to develop a useful product.