A systems-based approach for supporting discourse in decision making

A systemic methodology has been applied to improve decision making with uncertainty. Process modeling has been used to provide the means for gaining a holistic view of the system, and to allow for the complexity to be managed through a hierarchically structured set of subsystems. The success of each process depends significantly on its ability to address issues that arise, which could be the subject of discourse and debate among participants. This debate and discussion has been modeled using the Issue-Based Information System framework for argumentation. The uncertain propositions are combined using an extended aggregation rule in evidence theory. The resulting soft computation framework allows the evidence and arguments to be assembled and balanced. The overall framework is implemented in a software tool and applied to a case of climate change impacts on infrastructures to demonstrate how the favorability of each potential adaptation solution can be assessed with respect to system performance requirements.