A collaborative decision support system framework for vertical farming business developments

The emerging industry of vertical farming (VF) faces three key challenges: standardisation, environmental sustainability, and profitability. High failure rates are costly and can stem from premature business decisions about location choice, pricing strategy, system design, and other critical issues. Improving knowledge transfer and developing adaptable economic analysis for VF is necessary for profitable business models to satisfy investors and policy makers. A review of current horticultural software identifies a need for a decision support system (DSS) that facilitates risk-empowered business planning for vertical farmers. Data from the literature alongside lessons learned from industry practitioners are centralised in the proposed DSS, using imprecise data techniques to accommodate for partial information. The DSS evaluates business sustainability using financial risk assessment. This is necessary for complex/new sectors such as VF with scarce data.