In many countries, the Internet has become an element in people's daily life, offering new possibilities for information access and sharing. In this new technological and information age, water is becoming a source of conflict among domestic, industrial and agricultural users. Web-based Paddy Irrigation Productivity Assessment (WebPIPA) is a platform for public participation in disputes and for evolving decision-making processes in conflicting situations, especially in cases involving many stakeholders. WebPIPA is an Internet-based model that is created to benefit the users in the water management sectors in order to make timely decisions to increase Water Productivity Index (WPI), prevent water losses and increase crop yield. Government and private agencies, researchers, station users, farmers, investors and buyers related to this study area will be able to access the database through the Internet. While the development of WebPIPA poses `human' and `technological' challenges, by strengthening the involvement of government departments, the database can be used very effectively by all stakeholders at the same time, narrowing the digital gap between the urban and rural communities.

It is necessary that not only technical specialists but also government officials be involved in decision making associated with utilization of natural resources. Many groups within the society express the willingness and desire to be actively involved in decision making. This creates challenges to researchers and those actively involved in the development of models and tools used for decision making. Web-based Paddy Irrigation Productivity Assessment (WebPIPA) is a Decision Support System (DSS), created to enhance the involvement of users in data input as well as the decision-making process. The recent advancement in the field of Internet has opened up new challenges as well as opportunities in the way we have been developing models and decision-support aids. It is not only the medium of information access and communication but also a flourishing platform to develop new generations of applications. With the emergence of the revolutionary web-based technology, now it has become possible to develop information systems distributed across different locations and heterogeneous platforms. This also holds a great promise for their application in the highly diversified food and agricultural sectors.

In this information age, water is becoming a source of conflict among domestic, industrial and agricultural users. In Malaysia, irrigation has been exclusively devoted to the cultivation of paddy. The total land area planted with rice is about 600,545 ha, of which 340,618 ha are supported by irrigation systems. The remaining area depends mainly on rainfall (APO, 1991). Irrigation water management is becoming a challenging issue. More importance has been given to the improvement and effective management of water for irrigation. Water is important for rice irrigation and it is scarcely available in some areas. Hence, management of water becomes very important for the cultivation of rice. A good irrigation water management system has to be provided to give adequate and timely supply of water to improve crop production. In order to achieve this, it is necessary to have adequate water source, a good conveyance system and a good distribution system to distribute water over land. The agricultural scientific community has been developing models, databases, expert systems, DSSs and software. WebPIPA is a DSS created to provide an effective conduit for the transfer of scientific knowledge from research labs to the end users to support them in decision making.

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