Micro and macro-modelling of environmental information systems for decision-making in Tanzania

Conventionally, institutions in both private and public sectors concentrate on economic gains, giving little attention on ensuring environmental concerns. The environment took a center stage in the public agenda through establishment of ‘sustainable development (SD)’ principle which is bundled with information and information systems. The SD principle has led many initiatives to open access to environmental information to all parties involved in environmental decision-making (EDM). This is due to the fact that SD requires analyses of vast amount of information about environmental condition, environmental performance as well as environmental management. Also in recent years, there has been an evolvement of a new type of system “the environmental management system (EMS)”, which is based on the international family of standards, ISO 14000. In fact, such system has created ever-growing environmental information demands. The literature survey indicates that EDM is associated with risks, information inadequacies, problems of access to and flow of information within and between organizations, lack of standardized procedures for developing and analysis of environmental data systems. They have led to, among others, fragmented environmental infornation systems (EIS). Moreover, a systematic analysis of EIS is lacking and little is known in terms of how investments in EIS contribute to improving EDM. Thus, attempts to bridge gaps between the environmental information management and analytical needs of environmental decision-makers are needed. Through a framework of soft systems methodology, this thesis aimed at developing and testing a generalized analytical EIS model for assessment, developing including operationalising environmental infornation systems to support EDM at different levels. Also the research aimed at exploring the role of EIS in EDM as well as identifying gaps between EDM and EIS. Some of the important mediating factors, which were assumed to facilitate flow of environmental information in EDM within and between organizations which constitute to model attributes are- environmental information system design, quality, usage and management. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis through structural equation modeling (SEM) were done to validate model attributes. Furthermore eight cases were used to explore EIS scope and a survey of 142 respondents from various organizations in Tanzania was used to highlight applicability of developed EIS assessment model. Significant and immediate result from this thesis is a methodological model for developing, assessing and operationalising environmental information systems. To facilitate applicability of the developed model, the thesis recommends; capacity building in environmental information mangement, standardization and harmonization of EIS, digitization of environmental databases as well as instituting EIS sustainability mechanisms. Further research extension is recommended in the area of environmental informatics, that among others, may include developing prototype models to test applicability of issues developed under this study and environmental decision support systems (EDSS).