ABSTRACT
This chapter presents three cases in which a computerized information system is used to support policy design and decision making. The first case deals with the topic of contagious livestock diseases in Germany and the decisions concerning preventing and containing an outbreak of such diseases. The second case deals with the Riskmap in the Netherlands, a tool that maps all the relevant dangerous substances and instances in each geographical location. The final case deals with water management of rivers in the Netherlands and Germany. In all three cases the course of the policy process, the formation of policy, has been drastically changed through the visual event. Viewers of the visual event hold the opinion that because the visual event is in the form of an animation it is probably true. All the three cases deal with risk management: the risk of an outbreak of infectious disease, the risk of flooding and the risk of explosions or exposure to chemicals.
