Regional Policy DSS: Result Indicators Definition Problems

This paper addresses the issue of public decision support in regional economic development, being more particularly concerned with result indicators definition. The decisions taken within such a framework necessarily are cooperative in nature and involve various players, even though the culture of decision-making and cooperation is almost nonexistent in the regional governments. In this context, the definition of result indicators requires the reformulation of generally vague and non-quantified objectives. The conception of decision support systems therefore calls for prior considerable work on the decision system itself. The first part of this paper gives a general survey of regional economic policy definition. The second part focuses on the knowledge that may be identified in the texts of the Midi-Pyrenees Regional Council. The analysis is carried out on the basis of a three-level grid (representations, models, norms). The third and last part proposes an ontology co-building approach on regional development, illustrated by examples from the CAVALA project. The ontologies presented respect the heterogeneity of the various players' views of the world. They facilitate the players' awareness of the different views of the world at stake and help explain the concepts they use.