Use of Multicriteria Decision Analysis to Address Conservation Conflicts

Conservation conflicts are increasing on a global scale and instruments for reconciling competing interests are urgently needed. Multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) is a structured, decision‐support process that can facilitate dialogue between groups with differing interests and incorporate human and environmental dimensions of conflict. MCDA is a structured and transparent method of breaking down complex problems and incorporating multiple objectives. The value of this process for addressing major challenges in conservation conflict management is that MCDA helps in setting realistic goals; entails a transparent decision‐making process; and addresses mistrust, differing world views, cross‐scale issues, patchy or contested information, and inflexible legislative tools. Overall we believe MCDA provides a valuable decision‐support tool, particularly for increasing awareness of the effects of particular values and choices for working toward negotiated compromise, although an awareness of the effect of methodological choices and the limitations of the method is vital before applying it in conflict situations. Uso de Análisis de Decisiones Multicriterio para Abordar Conflictos de Conservación     

An inexact-stochastic with recourse model for developing regional economic-ecological sustainability under uncertainty

Effective planning of resources management is important for facilitating socio-economic development and eco-environmental sustainability. Such a planning effort is complicated with a variety of uncertain, dynamic and nonlinear factors as well as their interactions. In this study, an inexact-stochastic quadratic programming with recourse (ISQP-R) method is developed for reflecting dynamics of system uncertainties based on a complete set of scenarios as well as tackling nonlinearities in the objective function to reflect the effects of marginal utility on system benefits and costs. Moreover, since penalties are exercised with recourse against any infeasibility, the ISQP-R can support the analysis of various policy scenarios that are associated with different levels of economic consequences when the promised targets are violated. The developed method is applied to a case study of planning resources management and developing regional ecological sustainability. The results have been generated and are helpful for decision makers in not only identifying desired resources-allocation strategies but also gaining insight into the tradeoff between economic objective and eco-environment violation risk.     

Evaluating Areas of High Conservation Value in Western Oregon with a Decision‐Support Model

Abstract: The Northwest Forest Plan was implemented in 1994 to protect habitat for species associated with old‐growth forests, including Northern Spotted Owls (Strix occidentailis caurina) in Washington, Oregon, and northern California (U.S.A.). Nevertheless, 10‐year monitoring data indicate mixed success in meeting the ecological goals of the plan. We used the ecosystem management decision‐support model to evaluate terrestrial and aquatic habitats across the landscape on the basis of ecological objectives of the Northwest Forest Plan, which included maintenance of late‐successional and old‐growth forest, recovery, and maintenance of Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.), and viability of Northern Spotted Owls. Areas of the landscape that contained habitat characteristics that supported these objectives were considered of high conservation value. We used the model to evaluate ecological condition of each of the 36, 180 township and range sections of the study area. Eighteen percent of the study area was identified as habitat of high conservation value. These areas were mostly on public lands. Many of the sections that contained habitat of exceptional conservation value were on Bureau of Land Management land that has been considered for management‐plan revisions to increase timber harvests. The results of our model can be used to guide future land management in the Northwest Forest Plan area, and illustrate how decision‐support models can help land managers develop strategies to better meet their goals.     

An application of Markov Decision Programming to ecologico-cybernetics—A decision method applied to the antifrost of winter wheat

Modern ecologico-cybernetic principle is of importance to decreasing damages in relation to agricultural productions. As an illustration of this, the authors studied some of the questions about the optimal policy of choosing actions for the antifrost measures of winter wheat by means of the finite-stage model of Markov Decision Programming (MDP). The related data came from the investigation results of the investigated region in the northeastern part of Henan, China. First, the authors give the states, ecologico-cybernetic action measures, transition probabilities and reward values in relation to these antifrost action measures of winter wheat crop. Second, the authors describe the principles and computational procedures of the ecologico-cybernetic decision-makings based on the finite-stage model of MDP. Third, a simple table applicable to the decision-making practice is given. Finally, we evaluate the results of this study, point out their shortcomings and suggest that this method is applicable to the other fields in relation to decreasing damage ecologico-cybernetics.     

Assessing sustainability in nature-inspired design

In the field of sustainable product development, a new perspective for approaching sustainability has been advocated, challenging designers and engineers to aim beyond ‘reducing unsustainability’. Several design strategies – including Biomimicry and Cradle to Cradle – have been suggested for developing truly sustainable, or ‘beneficial’, products. But do these strategies help in developing such products, and how to assess their ‘sustainability’? Based on a review of the objectives in nature-inspired design, we argue that assessing environmental sustainability is not straightforward. Whereas both Biomimicry and Cradle to Cradle build on the perspective of ‘achieving sustainability’, current life-cycle assessment-based tools are geared towards reducing current impacts. As a consequence, existing tools are insufficiently equipped for the purpose of the assessment: they do not cover some of the main results that nature-inspired design is set out to accomplish. To be able to include these results, we propose two new constituents to current life-cycle-based product assessment: assessing against conditions of sustainability and assessing ‘achievement’, the extent to which these conditions of sustainability have been achieved. Furthermore, the product context needs to be included for assessing beneficial impacts. This article discusses how these constituents can contribute to an assessment tool that enables designers and engineers to assess the development of environmentally sustainable solutions.     

基于差异进化支持向量机的坑外土体沉降预测

就用支持向量机(SVM)预测基坑外土体沉降而言,通过差异进化(DE)算法构造适合的决策函数十分重要。在确定坑外土体沉降函数的基本形式下,进行参数反演。后将得到的解析式作为SVM的决策函数,再进行核函数转换,从而使SVM的曲线拟合更加快速,预测更加准确。对大连地铁湾家车站基坑坑外土体的沉降数据的分析及预测的结果表明,使用SVM-DE算法在计算数据量、计算消耗时间和预测精度方面优于2种方法单独使用。     

新型带弹簧支撑抗冲击研究及其在泥石流拦挡坝中的应用

为了使结构或构件能够更好地承受住泥石流、爆炸等冲击荷载,设计出一种新型带弹簧的支撑(件)。运用显式动力分析方法,对冲击载荷作用下的这种支撑进行数值模拟,计算得到新型支撑的动力响应,并与普通支撑进行对比分析。结果表明,新型支撑能更好地防止冲击荷载作用下的结构过早发生塑性变形。另外,在泥石流防治结构中,引入这种新型支撑,设计出新型泥石流拦挡坝。运用有限元软件ls-dyna对新型泥石流拦挡坝进行大块石冲击模拟,并与普通重力式拦挡坝进行对比分析,得出新型拦挡坝坝底应力远小于普通泥石流拦挡坝的应力。研究结果表明,新型带弹簧支撑及新型泥石流拦挡坝的抗冲击效果非常明显。     

Do statistical inferences allowing three alternative decisions give better feedback for environmentally precautionary decision-making?

Environmental policies and guidelines often specify standards for environmental indicators. The first part of this paper argues that, where compliance with these standards is assessed with the help of statistical inference, an inference employing a three-alternatives decision rule can provide more sensible feedback to environmental managers for precautionary decision-making. The second part of the paper shows how a three-alternatives statistical inference about compliance with a percentile standard might be applied to a small number of observations using a non-parametric binomial interval. This interval expression of uncertainty results in the sample size requirements for various percentile ranks becoming explicit.     

PCA-SVR在煤层瓦斯含量预测中的应用

针对煤层瓦斯含量与其影响因素之间存在着复杂的非线性关系,建立了基于主成分分析和支持向量回归机的煤层瓦斯含量预测模型。该模型有效地解决了小样本、非线性预测的问题,并发挥了主成分分析法消除输入变量间相关性的优点,减少了输入变量个数,提高了预测精度和收敛速度。通过实证分析,该模型的预测精度高,能够直接用于煤矿现场预测煤层瓦斯含量。