Multicriteria decision-making for efficient water and land resources allocation in irrigated agriculture

The irrational use of water in agriculture is often responsible for several problems concerning the depletion and/or the pollution of water resources. In these cases specific policy measures should be taken to protect water resources from harmful agricultural activities, mitigating at the same time their potential impact on farmers’ welfare. To this end, a multicriteria decision-making model is formulated that aims at allocating efficiently water and land resources in a rural area of Greece, by optimizing a set of important socio-economic and environmental objectives. According to the model’s output, past and current decisions on irrigated agriculture turned out to be oriented towards meeting exclusively the socio-economic objectives. Yet, there are several other possible allocations schemes that could be applied in order to improve the performance of environmental indicators and to contribute to a more sustainable use of natural resources. Moreover, the decision-making model can be further employed to assess a number of additional policy measures in irrigated agriculture. In this framework, the outcome of imposing various water pricing policies was evaluated. The efficiency of these policies was found tightly connected to the elasticity of water demand. Namely, higher elasticity seems to enhance the flexibility in resource allocation and the movement towards environmental objectives. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

环境保护的公众参与现状、问题及对策

本文从我国环境保护公众参与进程缓慢的历史和参与意识日益提高的现状出发,分析了目前我国环境保护的公众参与存在缺乏相应的法律制度保障、公众主动了解环保知识不足、参与机制不健全、渠道不顺畅等问题,提出了以加强环境信息公开、环境决策民主化,建立和发展环保社团等办法推动公众参与环境保护的对策。     

Parcelization in rural agricultural and forested landscapes in Wisconsin, 1972–2007: evaluating multiple dimensions of human decision-making over time

Many land-use change studies have relied on geographical explanatory factors. Unfortunately, they are but a single perspective in the multidimensional process of human decision-making. This project was designed to model the social, economic, geographic, and regulatory factors at the most appropriate unit of analysis, the landowner. By examining parcelization, a window is opened into the antecedent event of land-use change. A logistic regression model determined the likelihood a tax parcel would split in three time periods between 1953 and 2007. Geographic variables showed expected relationships to a parcelization event, while economic and regulatory variables illustrated some unexpected relationships. Social variables demonstrated scale issues that challenged their efficacy. A temporal analysis showed that historic parcelization was explained more robustly than more contemporary parcelization. The results could indicate that contemporary parcelization is driven by new and more complex factors not yet represented in similar models.     

Are there reasons against open-ended research into solar radiation management? A model of intergenerational decision-making under uncertainty

Solar radiation management (SRM) has been proposed as a means of last resort against dangerous climate change. We propose a stylized model of intergenerational decision making on SRM research, greenhouse-gas abatement and SRM deployment, under uncertainties about (a) the extent of future climate damage and (b) effectiveness and potential harmful side-effects of SRM. Open-ended research may reveal either that SRM effectively reduces climate damage, or that it would cause more harm than benefits. We find that SRM research increases the likelihood of deployment (“slippery slope”), and derive conditions that it decreases abatement effort in expectation (“moral hazard”). Neither of these provides a rationale against SRM research, though. The rational decision is to perform SRM research, unless (i) discounting is hyperbolic and (ii) the absolute prudence of expected climate damage is smaller than absolute risk aversion. These results generalize to the case where SRM research also provides information on climate sensitivity.     

Multi-criteria forest road network planning in fire-prone environment: a case study in Serbia

This paper presents a multi-criteria selection of the best forest road network with the aim of achieving effective preventive and timely repressive protection against forest fires. The research was carried out in national park (NP) “Tara” at a site which is under constant threat of fire. Four variants of the forest road network were designed and analyzed against seven criteria, and the best variant was selected using entropy weight coefficients (EWC) method. The importance of these seven criteria was studied by the management of the NP “Tara.” The greatest importance was given to the criteria relating to the cost of construction and maintenance of permanent and temporary roads (47% of the total value of all criteria). The EWC method did not select the variant based on the lowest costs of construction and maintenance as the best option, but the variant whose location was the most suitable for effective defense against forest fires.     

论环境公共决策中风险沟通的法律实现——以预防型环境群体性事件为视角

当前我国环境群体性事件呈高发态势。根据引发事件事实状态的不同可将其分为事前预防型环境群体性事件和事后救济型环境群体性事件。预防型环境群体性事件中公众所抵制的是有关环境风险的决策结果,实质上是在主张环境公共决策过程中认知风险的权利。着眼于预防型环境群体性事件所针对的环境公共决策过程,主要运用理论分析、规范分析、比较分析的方法,从行政决策权的行使与公众参与权利的实现入手,探究环境公共决策无法取得实质合法性的根源,寻求化解之法治路径。当前环境公共决策在结构和程序上呈现出封闭性,与决策结果具有直接利害关系的公众被排除在外,其认知风险的权利得不到有效实现,风险沟通不畅导致社会可接受的风险共识不能形成,环境公共决策无法取得实质合法性,引发预防型环境群体性事件增多。由于环境风险的不确定性特征,环境公共决策中专家的理性地位被动摇,公众参与环境决策的诉求更为强烈,其对风险的认知直接决定了对最终决策结果的认可和接受程度,政府无法独占风险决策地位。在社会层面形成具体风险认知的共识以便决策结果获得普遍的认同和接受成为环境公共决策取得实质合法性的必要条件。化解预防型环境群体性事件,需要在环境公共决策过程中进行有效的风险沟通。为此,环境法应当将公众作为环境决策的合作者,要求决策者主动、全面公开决策所依据的事实和理由,对公众意见给予及时充分的回应,寻求其理解和支持;实现环境信息公开的风险沟通功能;通过程序性的设计促进风险沟通的实现,保障公众参与的有效性。当前有关立法已反映出对风险沟通的重视,但只是萌芽。     

Understanding the impact of democratic logics on participatory resource decision-making in New Zealand

This paper claims that participatory approaches to water resource management in New Zealand are highly influenced by how institutional and community actors understand and practise democracy, including indigenous Māori rights under the Treaty of Waitangi. Drawing on case study analysis from a six-year research programme in which the aim was to evaluate existing and new methods for participatory decision-making, we highlight how different but co-existing democratic beliefs and practices, referred to as democratic logics can shape relationships between governance/decision-making bodies and affected communities. One particular case is examined in detail to illustrate how the various “logics” were strengthened, extended and challenged through participatory research methodologies. Our key message is that revealing and articulating existing democratic logics for participation can help promote and facilitate new participatory approaches, as well as increase robustness and community buy-in to local government decision-making.     

Value in sustainability: the process industry perspective

The most important driver for management is successful business that increases its value to shareholders. The adoption of environmentally responsible business practices can open up an additional range of opportunities for companies, for example by improving material efficiency. The choice to improve environmental performance of a company tends to also improve its financial performance. In this paper, our aim is to study the value of sustainability in process and mining industry from the perspective of interest groups such as investors, customers and the public, by using case examples. Interviews and workshops were employed to investigate whether or not investors and customers are interested in sustainability in the process and mining industries. We also illustrate how easy it can be to jeopardize corporate reputation through. The present situation and challenges faced in bringing sustainability into everyday business practices are summarized and proposals made concerning ways to achieve increased sustainability.     

Creating conservation strategies with value-focused thinking

Biodiversity and human well-being strategies are only as good as the set of ideas people think about. We evaluated value-focused thinking (VFT), a framework that emphasizes creating objectives and strategies that are responsive to the objectives. We performed a proof-of-concept study of VFT with 6 conservation planning teams at a global conservation organization. We developed a package of materials related to VFT, including meeting–session agendas, a virtual facilitation template, facilitator's guide, and evaluation questionnaires. We used these materials to test whether VFT applied in a group setting resulted in high-quality conservation strategies and participant satisfaction and whether our materials were scalable, meaning that someone newly trained in VFT could facilitate planning meetings that resulted in high-quality strategies and participant satisfaction, as compared with an experienced VFT facilitator. Net response indicated positive compelling, feasible, creative, and representative ratings for the conservation strategies per team. Participants indicated satisfaction overall, although satisfaction was greater for objectives than for strategies. Among the participants with previous conservation planning experience, all were at least as satisfied with their VFT strategies compared with previously developed strategies, and none were less satisfied (p = 0.001). Changes in participant satisfaction were not related to facilitator type (experienced or inexperienced with VFT) (p > 0.10). Some participants had a preconceived sense of shared understanding of important values and interests before participating in the study, which VFT strengthened. Our results highlight the advantages of structuring the development and evaluation of conservation planning frameworks around VFT.     

An introduction to decision science for conservation

Biodiversity conservation decisions are difficult, especially when they involve differing values, complex multidimensional objectives, scarce resources, urgency, and considerable uncertainty. Decision science embodies a theory about how to make difficult decisions and an extensive array of frameworks and tools that make that theory practical. We sought to improve conceptual clarity and practical application of decision science to help decision makers apply decision science to conservation problems. We addressed barriers to the uptake of decision science, including a lack of training and awareness of decision science; confusion over common terminology and which tools and frameworks to apply; and the mistaken impression that applying decision science must be time consuming, expensive, and complex. To aid in navigating the extensive and disparate decision science literature, we clarify meaning of common terms: decision science, decision theory, decision analysis, structured decision-making, and decision-support tools. Applying decision science does not have to be complex or time consuming; rather, it begins with knowing how to think through the components of a decision utilizing decision analysis (i.e., define the problem, elicit objectives, develop alternatives, estimate consequences, and perform trade-offs). This is best achieved by applying a rapid-prototyping approach. At each step, decision-support tools can provide additional insight and clarity, whereas decision-support frameworks (e.g., priority threat management and systematic conservation planning) can aid navigation of multiple steps of a decision analysis for particular contexts. We summarize key decision-support frameworks and tools and describe to which step of a decision analysis, and to which contexts, each is most useful to apply. Our introduction to decision science will aid in contextualizing current approaches and new developments, and help decision makers begin to apply decision science to conservation problems.