The Senegal Water Resources Management Initiative is a collaborative effort between the Senegalese Ministry of Water Resources and Sandia National Laboratories. It was established to assist in the development of an efficient and sustainable water resource management system for the country. The Vital Issues process served as the first step in the implementation of the Initiative and was used to provide information to be incorporated into a proposal for developing a state-of-the-art decision support system (DSS) that will be used by decision-makers in Senegal to help manage the country's water resources. The Vital Issues process was used to assist the Senegalese in identifying and prioritizing issues vital to water resource management and in compiling the information needed to address these issues and to make the appropriate decisions regarding the development of the water resources management DSS.

Figure 1: Five phases of the Senegal Water Resources Management Initiative.

Strategy

The Vital Issues Process was used in the Senegal Water Resources Management Initiative to provide information for the development of a proposal that will recommend actions to address key management issues and establish an advanced decision support system for managing Senegal's water resources.

Three Vital Issues Panel meetings were convened, two in August 1997 and one in October 1997, in Dakar, Senegal. The panelists were representatives from various Senegalese stakeholder interest groups, including the Senegalese government, industry and the private sector, academic institutions, and nongovernment organizations.

Setting the Context... the Vital Issues Process

Panel I, August 11, 1997, Dakar, Senegal

The first Vital Issues panel developed a goal statement for the Senegal Water Resources Management Initiative. The panelists also selected and ranked four criteria that would be used by subsequent panels to assess the relative importance of issues vital to managing Senegal's water resources.

1. Goal
2. Criteria
3. Relative Importance of Criteria

Panel II, August 29, 1997, Dakar, Senegal

The panelists on the Vital Issues panel II defined and ranked the issues that they considered vital to the management of Senegal's water resources using the goal statement and criteria developed by the first panel.

1. Vital Issues
2. Vital Issues Ranking

Panel III, October 15, 1997, Dakar, Senegal

The primary task of the third Vital Issues panel was to identify and prioritize a preliminary list of information needs for each vital issue defined by the second Vital Issues Panel. The panelists adopted an extensive list of information needed to address each vital issue and to make appropriate decisions regarding the development of an advanced decision support system.

1. Information Needs
2. Relative Importance of Information Needs

Vital Issues Participants

1. Panel I
2. Panel II
3. Panel III

Advanced Computational Capabilities... the 'Silicon' Computer

The information obtained in the three Vital Issues panel meetings will be used in combination with state-of-the-art technology developed by Sandia National Laboratories to assist the Senegalese with their water resource management. Approximately three months will be dedicated to the start-up and implementation of an advanced information system (SIC) that can be applied to Senegal's water resources management. Initial results are expected in the short term.

Long-term investments (10 years) are expected to follow in a second phase that will require financial contributions, environmental impact considerations, and health and shared-border resource studies.

Access to World-Class Experts... the 'Protein' Computer

The Protein Computer component of the Decision Support System will provide a distributed collaborative environment for decision makers, analysts, consultants, and interested stakeholders to share information, exchange data, and analyze the model results real time. Opportunities will include videoconferencing, simultaneous viewing of "silicon" computer model results, white board teleconferencing of data and ideas, file transfer, as well as chat rooms. A list of experts about the vital issues identified by the Vital Issues panelists is also being assembled.

For more information contact Dr. Dennis Engi, (505) 845-8284.

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