Matthias Wildemeersch participated in EURO 2018 conference

A collaborative expert system for decision support in public policy

In the policy arena, there is high pressure to provide right and quick decisions for problems that are often poorly defined. For that reason there is a persistent need to support stakeholders in establishing a shared understanding of policy problems and to assist them in the design of solution paths. Here we propose a methodology based on the construction and analysis of system maps, i.e., graphical representations of the complex interdependencies of all relevant factors that affect the problem under study. Owing to their collaborative design, system maps provide a transparent tool with broad stakeholder acceptance for analysis of ill-defined problems in a formal way. The final target is to assist decision-makers at each step of the decision-making process through the construction and analysis of system maps: i.e., from the understanding of the system behavior, through the listing of objectives and constraints, to the presentation of feasible solutions that are satisfactory over a range of different plausible scenarios. System maps provide us with an effective framework to collect information dispersed over experts, facilitate mediation, and analyze potential pathways, meeting predefined criteria of robustness. We illustrate the methodology by means of a case study on the recent refugee crisis. This case study was developed in collaboration with several Finnish ministries and a government agency responsible for immigration procedures.

EURO 2018

EURO 2018 is the largest European conference for Operational Research and Management Science with more than 40 years of history since the first edition in 1975 in Brussels. It is organized by EURO – the European Association of Operational Research Society, SEIO – the Spanish Statistics and Operations Research Society, UV – Universitat de València, UPV – Universitat Politècnica de València and ADEIT – Fundació Universitat Empresa.