Coupling ecosystem valuation methods to the WAECO decision support system in the Zwalm Catchment (Belgium)

This paper discusses the need of coupling ecosystem valuation techniques and predictive models to support decision-making in the policy area of water management. It is shown that close linkages between ecological modelling and economic valuation are necessary, because the contemporary water management in Flanders, characterised by its regional orientation (whole Flanders), is based on too general information (mainly indexes) and does not account for the river system processes and its local particularities. Also the relations between the water uses and their effects on the water system are rather unclear, resulting in a lot of uncertainty about the management decisions that have to be made. To improve the reliability and efficiency of management actions in the future, Decision Support Systems working at different scales will therefore play an important role. A concept for a DSS at (sub)river basin scale is presented in this paper: the WAter ECOlogy Decision Support System (WAECO-DSS) in the Zwalm catchment (Flanders, Belgium). A major conclusion of this study is that the contemporary monitoring and assessment of water systems in Flanders only allow the allocation of major impacts and that more detailed and integrated monitoring, modelling and ecosystem valuation are required to obtain a sustainable restoration of the aquatic systems by using cost-benefit analyses