A water resources management and planning decision support system (DSS) was designed for a specific study area in the Sultanate of Oman. The purpose was to demonstrate how the use of the decision support system could result in formulation and implementation of rational water resources management and planning policies in the Sultanate of Oman. The DSS architecture was comprised of four major components. A database (dbase IV) , geographic information system (GIS) using Arclnfo, satellite image processing GIS using the Earth Resources Data Analysis System (ERDAS) and a multi criteria decision making model, MATS (Multi Attribute Tradeoff System) , were employed to synthesize the data and evaluate the final policy alternatives. The results demonstrated that a DSS can provide valuable support to the water resources manager and the impact of graphics output on the visualization of spatial and temporal water resources data. The DSS also illustrated the value of databases that can store and organize water resources related data in a format that provides the support for rational multiattribute decision making.

A water resources management and planning decision support system (DSS) was designed for a specific study area in the Sultanate of Oman. The purpose was to demonstrate how the use of the decision support system could result in formulation and implementation of rational water resources managemen...