Introduction

An ISDSS, or Integrated Spatial Decision Support System, is designed to help examine weakly-structured or unstructured problems characterised by many actors, many possibilities, and high uncertainty. The Waikato Integrated Scenarios Explorer, or WISE, is developed for the Waikato region to support evaluation and deliberation of strategies and scenarios related in the context of Waikato Regional Council's strategic direction and long-term planning, including the development of population, economic and land use projections, and the evaluation of policy options.

The first version of WISE was developed as part of the Government funded (FRST) 4-year Creating Futures project (2006-2010). This project brought together an interdisciplinary team consisting of a key end user (Waikato Regional Council, WRC) and social, environmental and economic researchers. The project aimed to develop new methods and tools to support integrated, long-term planning to help Waikato Regional Council and other councils evaluate links and trade-offs between economic, environmental and social/cultural outcomes as well as the cumulative effects of many decisions over space and time.