Toward generalized decision support systems for flood risk management

Despite the emergence of a large number of specialized decision-support systems (DSS) in the last decades, currently there are fewer efforts made for integrating the flood risk management relevant sciences with information and communication technologies into generalized DSS. Such systems are expected to formulate decision options for prevention, mitigation, preparation, response, and recovery from flood impacts with consideration of climate change, socio-economic evolution, and stakeholders’ input. Currently, there is no unified vision on the architecture, components, and the needed computer and communications technologies for attaining generic DSS for flood mitigation and resilience. Moreover, there is no guidance of what components should be developed first and in what order and how to efficiently include human-computer interfaces for efficient stakeholder engagement and consensus. This paper calls for the formation of a strategic global partnership for framing and subsequently assisting in the development of a generalized flood DSS (FLOODSS) that can overcome the current flood DSS limitations. The call is preceded by a review of the flood decision-support terminology and context. Subsequently, an initial vision on the FLOODSS is outlined and the steps for transitioning such a system from vision to practice are proposed.