The Waikato Integrated Scenario Explorer (WISE) is a dynamic, spatially-explicit computer simulation model that integrates economic, demographic, environmental (climate, hydrology, water quality, biodiversity) and land use (suitability, accessibility, local influence, zoning) information to assess the effects and trade-offs of alternative future development scenarios or the consequences of policy options. A short video about the spatial planning tool WISE has been released - Click here to view...
WISE was developed as part of a Government-funded innovative work programme (Creating Futures) led by the Waikato Regional Council in collaboration with an interdisciplinary multi-agency research team. The ‘Creating Futures’ research programme purpose was to develop tools for integrated spatial planning and decision-making. The Waikato Regional Council is now advancing the practical application and further enhancement of WISE to support regional and local government planning and decision-making processes.
The Waikato Reference Scenario is the 'starting setup' for the WISE model. The Reference Scenario provides a plausible future projection based on current policies, plans and associated zoning, current and planned infrastructure, current projections of population and economic growth, and geophysical suitability of the landscape.
The Reference Scenario provides a starting point onwhich to built alternate future scenarios and a 'baseline' set of indicator outputs for comparision with any alternate scenarios. To see more about the Waikato Reference Scenario and its future projections - Click here...
The modelling of Ecosystem Services is emerging as an important area for Regional Councils as they are required to understand the possible effects on these services by policy and resource use decisions and understand the full range of 'trade-offs' that may occur through such decisions. A workshop on Ecosystems Services Modelling was held by WRC with... >>
A web based directory of decision support systems (DSS’s) was created in 2012 through an Envirolink Tools project. This directory is now being reviewed and updated as part of another Envirolink Tools project. The aim of this project is to add more DSS tools to the directory and relevant case studies to keep the directory... >>