Contextual interactive guidance for decision makers

“We are seeing a massive growth in the use of decision support systems, particularly ones branching into the use of more immersive technology,” said Danielle Oprean, assistant professor of information science and technology, University of Missouri, and former Penn State postdoctoral fellow. “However, we still do not know much about how current systems and human decision makers interact in complex scenarios.”

The researchers were looking for a tool that would lead decision makers in the right direction, allow compromises, but not dictate the results. The types of decisions are not clear cut, but require a give-and-take to find the point where all the constituent sides are balanced as best they can be.

“Say you have a village next to a lake and the lake is used for recreation and fishing,” said Klaus Keller, professor of geoscience and director, Penn State Center for Climate Risk Management. “If phosphorus-containing wastewater is going into the lake, the lake will become overgrown with algae and the fish will die. Reducing the phosphorous inputs into the lake costs money. Loss of fishing costs money and recreation.”

The challenge is to find the low-cost strategy to reduce the phosphorous and keep the lake safe for recreation and fishing. And this is a problem with only one decision over time: How much to reduce phosphorus inputs into the lake. Other problems, with more variables, become far more complex.

Source: Decision makers need contextual interactive guidance