Introduction to Multi criteria Decision Analysis

Multiple-objective problems are ubiquitous in natural resource management. Often, solving these problems requires dealing with trade-offs between multiple potentially competing objectives. In this chapter, I provide an overview of approaches to solving multiple-objective problems. I begin by contrasting 2 general classes of solution methods within multiple-objective decision making: multiobjective programming approaches and multicriteria decision analysis. Multi-objective programming focuses on technical solutions to identifying preferred alternatives from large sets of implicitly defined candidate alternatives. Multi-criteria decision analysis is typically used to evaluate smaller numbers of explicitly defined alternatives, with a unifying theme of evaluating trade-offs between objectives in decision-making processes. I introduce 3 primary classes of methods within multi-criteria decision analysis: methods based on multi-attribute value or utility, the analytic hierarchy process, and outranking methods. I also briefly consider deliberative, discussion-based approaches to dealing with trade-offs and then introduce 3 multiple-objective case studies from the United States, Australia, and Canada.