The Decision Support System of INCOVER is released!

Finally, the Decision Support System (DSS) of INCOVER is released. You can download it here and also the guidelines on use and operation.

This tool aims at supporting decisions mainly in wastewater treatment sector by providing economic, social and environmental evaluations for a series of reference systems. The tool offers results for the following reference topics:

• Wastewater treatment: conventional, sequencing batch reactor, and high-rate algae pond
• Biogas treatment and biogas upgrade with pressure swing adsorption and with algae-based technology
• Planted filters and evaporative systems
• Conventional chlorination and solar anodic oxidation

In addition, the in Visual Basic programmed excel workbook offers an evaluation surface for new technologies too. The new technology can be defined via a dialog box where the main material and energy flows and costs are to be defined.

Based on the data input via this dialog box the workbook calculates environmental and economic indicators and compares them to the selected reference system. The results are given in a table and also as a diagram.

In a separate sheet the social impacts of the reference systems are evaluated using a semi-quantitative method adapted from UNEP/SETAC “Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment of Products”. In this DSS sheet, the evaluated technology can be chosen from a drop-down menu and the results appear immediately. For each reference system the results show ratings of the “Stakeholder Social Index (SSI)” for four groups of stakeholders (Worker, Local Community, Consumer, and Value Chain Actors), the aggregated result “Overall Social Index (OSI)”, and a description of the possible social impacts as a qualitative assessment.