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 Mobergs MCDA is a common sense approach to balance the science, social, behavior, and economic factors associated in making complex decisionsa 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. Hämäläinen, 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 specificand varyingcircumstances. 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
