DEVELOPMENT OF A DECISION-MAKING SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR MONITORING OF WATER RESOURCES

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1 DEVELOPMENT OF A DECISION-MAKING SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR MONITORING OF WATER RESOURCES Roberto Rodrigues de Souza Universidade Federal de Sergipe, Chemical Engeneering Department, Research Leader of GPBIOMA/CNPq/UFS, São Cristóvão, Sergipe, Brasil rrsouza@ufs.br Rosemeri Melo e Souza Universidade Federal de Sergipe, Geography Department, Research Leader of GEOPLAN/CNPq/UFS, São Cristóvão, Sergipe, Brasil rome@ufs.br CEP: São Cristóvão Sergipe - Brasil - rrsouza@ufs.br ou rrsouza.br@gmail.com Página 1 de 15

2 INTRODUCTION Degradation and the consequent shortage of water resources is no longer only a struggle of ardent environmentalists, to represent a serious public health problem. The aquatic environments are used worldwide with different purposes, among which stand out the water supply, power generation, irrigation, navigation, aquaculture and harmony landscape. Water is, after all, the main constituent of all living organisms. However, in recent decades, this precious resourceis being threatened by the improper actions of man, which ultimately results in harm to humanity itself. (Moraes & Jordão, 2002). The problems related to global environmental pollution and reducing the potential of nature are the result of pressure from the global development (Krainer & Wallace, 2003). As Pruski et al (1999), humanity has gone through several crises such as those resulting from epidemics, lack of food and oil, and undoubtedly the next crisis to be tackled will be energy and water availability of good quality. And according to Becker (1998), the degradation of this resource by problems of pollution is adding to difficulties for their use and enhancing their scarcity and, therefore, it is import to the formulation and implementation of measures to manage its use and preserve quality. In the process of decision making, it is important to have available data, information and knowledge, but these are usually sparse, and typically represent a very significant volume in this way is necessary to use technology to create new job options to facilitate and optimize the process of decision making. CEP: São Cristóvão Sergipe - Brasil - rrsouza@ufs.br ou rrsouza.br@gmail.com Página 2 de 15

3 Technology plays a key role in both communication and storage of data, information and knowledge for the integration of decision makers. He is also huge potential for knowledge sharing (Angeloni, 2003). The conditions of access to water resources are through good management and adequate political process. The management of water resources is a way of confronting and resolving the issues of scarcity and through the rational use, to optimize these resources for the benefit of society. This management is performed using procedures of integrated planning and management (SETTI et al, 2000). According (MCINTOSH, 2003), one of the ways to obtain environmental information involves the use of formal models as a means of exploring what might happen with a given phenomenon in a given period of time and that this may be a way to test hypotheses or to discover the possible effects of data management and actions. The integrated modeling has grown considerably as a viable tool in aid of environmental management. Developed and transformed to serve as models for environmental management is needed to define technical and social (ARGENT &HOUGHTON, 2001). As Rizzoli & Davis (1999) the problems of environmental integration models, particularly the disciplines, have been studied and recognized for many years, and the development of computer programs are being used as a way to show them and solve them. And some of the techniques being used to display and solve these problems makes use of object oriented programming, modular development and remodeling, CEP: São Cristóvão Sergipe - Brasil - rrsouza@ufs.br ou rrsouza.br@gmail.com Página 3 de 15

4 use formal programming language and user-friendly interface in the development of programs for environmental modeling. According GAURISO & WERTHNER (1989), there are different opinions about what constitutes an environmental information system and what constitutes a support system for decision making. As BOOTY (2001), some argue that a data management system can be used as a support system for decision making in some applications while others consider geographic information systems as important as a support system for decision-decisions. Generally speaking, "anything" to help (support) a decision-making can be considered a decision support system (REIS et al, 2002). The conditions of access to water resources are through good management and adequate political process. The management of water resources is a way of confronting and resolving the issues of scarcity and through the rational use, to optimize these procedures for integrated planning and management (SETTI et al, 2000). Thus the development of a software that delivers information fast, secure and easy to understand for the user is of utmostimportance to management and environmental monitoring, sincethrough this tool can provide information about the true state of the object under study through their databases, as well as assist in making decisions to combat and prevent pollution and environmental degradation. CEP: São Cristóvão Sergipe - Brasil - rrsouza@ufs.br ou rrsouza.br@gmail.com Página 4 de 15

5 METHODOLOGY The methodology used in developing this project is represented in Figure 1. Figure 1 - Flowchart of the methodology of representative system Theoretical basis: this was done through consultations with magazines, periodicals, books, dissertations and theses. Consisted of literature review and search for current information on monitoring and management of water resources. CEP: São Cristóvão Sergipe - Brasil - rrsouza@ufs.br ou rrsouza.br@gmail.com Página 5 de 15

6 Construction System: UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE SERGIPE - Definition of the environment and language, through consultations with books and catalogs seek types of software programming language and an environment more suited to our goal. Among the criteria used for choosing the language and environment were that it was easy to understand for both the development and implementation of a management system database and for access to their database via the user. Based on these criteria, the language of choice was the object pascal and the environment to be developed was the Borland Delphi 6.0, version Interprise. Today, Delphi is the product faster to build web applications and for applications that work with databases. - Building the physical model: this step was the development of the methodology of the algorithm of the system and aims to devise a user-friendly interface between the system and the user and to ensure compliance and development of decision support system. - Construction of the interface: the system is being developed by Delphi, version 6.0. The Object Pascal language that Delphi uses as the base language, language is considered a very practical, versatile, extremely stable and acts in a methodoriented programming objetos. Para work with database, Delphi 6.0 uses a system called EDL (Borland Database Engine - Engine Borland Database), which harmoniously integrates data from various formats such as dbase, Paradox, Access and others. The creation of the database is done through the desktop database tool that allows us to create, restructure, browse and edit tables to databases. Through it we can work with tables in the format Paradox, dbase, SQL, among others. CEP: São Cristóvão Sergipe - Brasil - rrsouza@ufs.br ou rrsouza.br@gmail.com Página 6 de 15

7 Figure 2 - Schematic of the physical structure of the RiverSystem. CEP: São Cristóvão Sergipe - Brasil - rrsouza@ufs.br ou rrsouza.br@gmail.com Página 7 de 15

8 Figure 2_1 - Schematic of the physical structure of the RiverSystem. CEP: São Cristóvão Sergipe - Brasil - rrsouza@ufs.br ou rrsouza.br@gmail.com Página 8 de 15

9 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The program was developed in four basic and fundamental steps: - Knowledge base: the first stage consisted of a literature review of national environmental laws and resolutions in force in the country and state, with the aim to support the structuring and evaluation of data required by the program. Besides the laws and resolutions, they also raise the main physical, chemical, physical, chemical and bacteriological, their limits and their influence on behavior and dynamics of water resources. From this information we develop the theoretical basis of the program and were able to define the surface data that would be required by the program so we could give plausible answers to the user and based on the current situation of a particular water body. Recalling that the program works as a database, so this is strictly based on user input. - Database: This step consisted in structuring the database. The database represents the physical file data is where data is stored in various systems, for querying and updating by the user. The advantages of its use are: the reduction or elimination of redundancies, eliminate inconsistencies, data sharing, security restrictions, data standardization, data independence and maintaining integrity. Through the database was developed our DBMS (System Manager Database), which is the software itself. This step is the most important program because the user (manager) will insert data from a certain point, river or basin and from these could provide the preventive or corrective actions based on the knowledge base of the Decision Support System developed. CEP: São Cristóvão Sergipe - Brasil - rrsouza@ufs.br ou rrsouza.br@gmail.com Página 9 de 15

10 - Base models: This step is based on our previous project, which consisted of the creation of an Empirical Model for the Salt River / SE and other models that will be raised through the literature review. In this part of the project will be based the structure of the DBMS, which is the software responsible for managing (storing and retrieving) data on a database, that is, our program will be based on a system database that consists of defining the data to the DBMS through the DDL (Data Design Language), that is, the programming language. - User interface: it represented the last step of our program was the development and application program, that is, the fields were set to be used by the program. This phase was the development of the visual application of "communication" between the user and the database. Through this application, the user can register new data, query the database, receive general information and / or specific about the water quality of a particular water body. This step consisted of the functional integration of the steps described above and resulted in our DSS (Decision Support System) or in other words in our DBMS (System Manager Database) for Monitoring of Water Resources of Sergipe. Currently the vast majority of systems developed for the Windows environment, current use in: small, medium and large enterprises, makes use of the database developed in Xbase, Paradox, Access, etc.. Where most of the time the programming tools for that application is created in Visual Basic, Delphi, Access, or other language focused on object-oriented programming. CEP: São Cristóvão Sergipe - Brasil - rrsouza@ufs.br ou rrsouza.br@gmail.com Página 10 de 15

11 In order to facilitate the user interface the system was developed in modules. So when you start your system will be shown in Figure 3, which will immediately be overlapped by another screen with the request the name and password for the user to make it possible to perform user logon. Figure 3 - Main screen system RIVER. FILE: It's the first menu in our program and is divided into four sub-menus, predefined in order to facilitate user interaction with the system: Log Backup, Restore Backup, Access Settings, and Exit. REGISTRATION: This is the second menu in our program and how the goal of this project was to develop a system to support decision making, we can consider the development of this menu as one of the fundamental steps in the system since it constitutes the bank program data, ie, this menu is responsible for all records involved in the system (user, watershed, variables, etc.). CEP: São Cristóvão Sergipe - Brasil - rrsouza@ufs.br ou rrsouza.br@gmail.com Página 11 de 15

12 Figure 4 provides the broad outline of the physical structure of the menu as well as their respective submenus. Figure 4 - Menu Structure Physics "Register" River System. CONSULTATION: This is the third menu of the program and through it the user will be allowed to view the information entered into the database. This menu contains the same six items described above: user, watershed, river (general data and points), variables, laboratories, testing (physical, chemical, biological and climatological and extras), and this is subdivided into two other sub-items: general and customized. CEP: São Cristóvão Sergipe - Brasil - rrsouza@ufs.br ou rrsouza.br@gmail.com Página 12 de 15

13 REPORT: this represents the fourth menu system, and is responsible for generating reports on the system data. LINKS: this menu is responsible for providing the user with the addresses related to the theme of water resources management as a kind of complement in search of information on the subject. MANAGEMENT: This item is the most important system and is responsible for supporting analysis of the results obtained for the various water bodies included in the database. Through this menu the user can make a more precise study on the situation of a particular basin, the river, period. Initially insert two items, legislation and AQI, the first gives an overview on the contents of laws, resolutions, codes related to water resources. The second is more related to a practical part of the data analysis, we insert it CETESB the methodology adopted for calculating the WQI(Water Quality Index), that is, in order to help the user to obtain information "approximate "quality and the actual situation of a given water body, we find extremely important to present an evaluation method that provides data to the user so that it may assist in the process of deciding which corrective or preventive action it should to use to circumvent or solve your problem quickly and objectively. ABOUT: This is the last menu system, and is divided into two basic items: help topics and River system, and is responsible for providing technical support to the user. CEP: São Cristóvão Sergipe - Brasil - rrsouza@ufs.br ou rrsouza.br@gmail.com Página 13 de 15

14 CONCLUSIONS System "RIVER" to support decision-making can be considered an extremely important tool for professionals who work with planning and management of water resources, because through its solid structure database and its user friendly interface the user can get reliable information on the environmental quality of a certain place and from these take corrective action and/or preventive action to circumvent or abolish certain problem. Because it is a system structured in a database, we were careful to develop it on a consolidated basis, assuming that this is the core to ensure smooth operation and security of the developed system. To ensure the consolidation of the database tables developed for individual storage of data, thus avoiding overloading the system, and develop forms that will be used by users in an understandable and very user friendly interface for easy data entry and perform the tasks required in the system. Another point worth noting is that concerns the generation of a tool that was able to provide input in decisionmaking process, to ensure our goal we use a database structured in theoretical resolutions, codes, standards and methodologies adopted by the major agencies study the environmental resources of the country. Thus we can say that the system have River in context of a set of basic tools and essential for the study of the environmental situation of a particular water environment and that through their theoretical basis and your database you can define the measures be taken to improve or maintain environmental quality of CEP: São Cristóvão Sergipe - Brasil - rrsouza@ufs.br ou rrsouza.br@gmail.com Página 14 de 15

15 water resources of interest. It is noteworthy that because it is a tool of environmental nature is required to update their constant and that due to the complexity of natural environments provided the data are only approximations of reality. CEP: São Cristóvão Sergipe - Brasil - rrsouza@ufs.br ou rrsouza.br@gmail.com Página 15 de 15