Development and applications of community-based decision support system for land use allocation at Mae Sa Mai Royal Project Development Center, Chiang Mai Province, Thailand

Abstract

The Royal Project Foundation has successfully developed a computer program on decision support system for land use allocation in the watershed areas (DSSLAW). The core features of this program are the integration of the crop, hydrological, soil erosion and socio-economic models into a single model and the provision of necessary information for decision-making aimed at sustainable land use in the watershed areas. This developed decision support system was applied to a watershed area in Mae Sa Mai Royal Project Development Center by mean of role-playing game (RPG). This paper provides details on development of the program, its applications and some empirical results from the fieldwork.