Collaborative Modeling for Decision Making

Demands for water resources continue to grow leading to increasing competition for remaining resources. The increasing competition leads to disputes as multiple stakeholders participate in the study process. A collaborative planning process, given many names (CADRe, Shared Vision Planning, Decision Support Systems, Integrated Water Resources Management, and Watershed or Systems Studies), is attempting to address disparate values and develop alternatives that improve upon initial goals. The question often asked is what role does computer modeling have during this collaborative process. This paper will address how to build trust in standard computer software. Different tiers of software fidelity and stakeholder engagement are proposed. In addition, visualization techniques used during the development of the model and the review of the modeling results will be stressed. An overarching interface can be used to integrate software that allows stakeholders to choose and use appropriate software thus enhancing trust. Finally, the paper will discuss how expert modelers will interact with non-modelers in this collaborative process. Several examples of Hydrologic Engineering Center (HEC) software are used to describe how software can enhance the collaborative process.