Optimization in Decision Support Systems

Abstract

Two important components of decision support systems (DSSs) are a model that describes the behaviour of the system under study along a certain period of time and an optimization algorithm that searches for one or several ‘good’ options within the space of admissible human interventions. Both elements received a great deal of attention in recent decades, mostly motivated by industrial and management applications. There are also many examples of decision support projects in agronomy, in particular, in weed control for crop protection. Since the bioeconomic models arising in Integrated Weed Management (IWM) studies are nonlinear, mixed integer and large scale, they are quite difficult to optimize. In this chapter, some basic elements of optimization are reviewed, with special emphasis in practical issues (modelling, programming), which are less covered than theoretical topics in the open literature.