Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis: Environmental Applications and Case Studies

Environmental management is often complicated and multidisciplinary and the issues that arise can be difficult to solve analytically. Often, decision makers take ad hoc approaches, which may result in the ignoring of important stakeholder opinions or decision criteria. Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) provides a framework by which these type

Table of Contents:
Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis: Methods and Applications: Introduction to Multi-Criteria Methods. Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis in Environmental Sciences: Applications and Trends. MCDA Methods in Depth: Sediment Management: Problem Formulation and MCDA Model. Weighting and Scoring. MAUT. Outranking. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). MCDA Application in Depth: Nanomaterials: Nanomaterials: Background and Environmental Challenges. Risk-Based Classification of Nanomaterials. Nanomaterials Risk in Perspective: Bringing Together Technical Judgment and Stakeholder Preference. Insurability of Nanotechnology. Selecting Optimal Nanomanufacturing Technology. Value of Information Analysis for Nanomanufacturing. MCDA Application Case Studies: Setting Dredging Windows for Sensitive Fish Species. Management of Harmful Algal Blooms. Restoring Oysters in Chesapeake Bay. Performance Metrics for Oil Spills Response. Appendix: DECERNS: Software Guide. Index.

About the Author :
Dr. Igor Linkov is a Research Scientist and Risk and Decision Science Focus Area Lead with the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center, and Adjunct Professor of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Linkov has managed multiple ecological and human health risk assessments and risk management projects, including application of state-of-the-science modeling and software tools to highly complex sites-among them the Hudson River, Dow Midland, Natick Soldier Systems Command, and Elizabeth Mine-and projects such as restoration and remediation planning, nanotechnology, and risk-based prioritization of engineering projects. He has published widely on environmental policy, environmental modeling, and risk analysis, including twelve books and over 150 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters. Dr. Linkov has organized more than 40 national and international conferences and continuing education workshops on risk assessment, decision analysis, environmental security, risk communication, nanotechnology, and modeling. The Governor of Massachusetts has appointed Dr. Linkov to serve as a Scientific Advisor to the Toxic Use Reduction Institute. Dr. Linkov is also the recipient of the 2005 SRA Chauncey Starr Award for his exceptional contribution to risk analysis and a 2010 US Army Achievement Medal for Civilian Service. Emily Moberg is a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology studying Biological Oceanography. Her undergraduate work was in Environmental Engineering and her interests lie in environmental processes and ecology. She has done work at the University of Pennsylvania, with the US Army Corps of Engineers, and at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Her work with the US Army Corps of Engineers has allowed her to focus more on risk analysis and the management of environmental concerns, which she hopes to apply later in her career.

Review :
Currently, the most important trend in environmental assessment is the increasing emphasis on informing the decision-making process. With this book, Igor Linkov and Emily Moberg provide a useful introduction to the most versatile tool for linking estimates of risks or impacts with the many other considerations that inform environmental management decisions. -Glenn Suter, Science Advisor, National Center for Environmental Assessment, U.S. EPA Where the U.S. government is in need of effective and reliable environmental tools to guide leadership, Linkov and Moberg's MCDA is a common sense approach to balance the science, social, behavior, and economic factors associated in making complex decisions-a true systems approach seeking to find an acceptable and sustainable state of equilibrium. -Colonel Dionysios Anninos, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Chief of Staff ... an excellent resource for researchers, practitioners, teachers and students interested in the use of formal decision analysis methods in environmental policy. The case study format allows the reader to grapple with the different methods and the associated software in context, the explanations are clear but sophisticated, and the discussion questions are crafted to encourage real student engagement ... -Timothy F. Malloy, Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law The book is a valuable complementary addition to textbooks on the topic as it provides a very easy to follow presentation of the main methods. The approach is based on working through case studies using the DECERNS software. I am sure that practitioners will find this book a very helpful first step into the practice of the methodology. -Raimo P. Hamalainen, Professor, Aalto University, Finland I like how it gives a non-partisan treatment of all the different techniques, how it demonstrates them all on comparable problems so that it is easy for the reader to keep straight what is different and what is similar, and that the case problems themselves are realistic so it is clear how one might use this in practice. -Jeffrey M. Keisler, President Elect, INFORMS Decision Analysis Society and Associate Professor, University of Massachusetts Boston In our society, environment is a 'common good'. That is why stakeholders and citizens seek for more transparency and accountability within decision processes. The authors have offered us a set of practical experiences and have contributed to popularize multi-criteria decision analysis methods and tools by respecting the difficult equilibrium between conceptual/technical precisions and operational validation. This book will be a precious document for practitioners, regulators, researchers and students. -Myriam Merad, PhD, National Institute for Industrial Environment and Risk (INERIS), France This book describes methods and applications of multi-criteria decision analysis. But it goes beyond models and theory to provide case studies and discussions of multi-criteria decision analysis applied in specific-and varying-circumstances. The book provides tools. It also inspires creative thought by offering examples that can be a springboard for policy makers and other decision makers to think about its relevance and utility in the many circumstances they face. -From the Foreword by Lynn Scarlett, Former Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of the Interior, Visiting Scholar, Resources for the Future