Integrated Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis and Geographic Information System for Environmental Management

Responsible management of environmental resources requires reliable environmental modeling and collaborative decision-making by stakeholders. The proposed work aims to create a decision support tool that integrates environmental models, spatial tools, and decision analysis methods to formally and transparently evaluate tradeoffs and uncertainties with regard to environmental resource management. The decision support tool will integrate various Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) models within a Geographic Information System (GIS) framework to provide a powerful system of models for assessing the impacts of multi-media environmental contamination over varying spatial and temporal scales with a direct linkage to a decision support module. The elements necessary to develop an integrated GIS-based Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) tool for environmental management already exist individually or in partially integrated forms. A combined platform of modeling analysis and risk assessment, GIS-based data integration, and decision analysis would provide a powerful and much-needed tool to support environmental management decisions.