Balasubramaniam A, Voulvoulis N
Department of Environmental Science & Technology, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2BP, UK.
Environ Technol. 2005 Sep;26(9):951-62. doi: 10.1080/09593332608618484.
Environmental decision-making occurs in numerous environmental sectors and covers a diverse range of problems. Of the various decision tools available not all of them may be appropriate for any single decision problem, and any particular decision-aid may not be applicable in all decision problems. This article reviews applications of MCA, and considers the appropriateness of Multicriteria Analysis (MCA) in environmental decision-making problems. Due to natural and decision environments being multidimensional, environmental decision-making is characterized by complexity. Consequently MCA has commonly been used in this area. In Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) the multiple dimensions of the impacts evaluated have been easily represented in MCA as multiple criteria. Waste management and water resource planning problems involving public participation have been facilitated by MCA, through the structuring and articulation of the public's values. MCA has also been applied in water quality problems, allowing the incorporation of incommensurable criteria into evaluations. The appropriateness of MCA for environmental decision problems can be viewed in the context of a typical decision-making process, making it easier to identify the contribution MCA can make at various decision-making stages. MCA can be particularly appropriate when the decision-making context is characterized by multiple objectives and multiple criteria, incommensurable criteria, mixed data and the need for ease of use, and the analysis context is characterized by multiple participants.
环境决策存在于众多环境领域，涵盖各种各样的问题。在现有的各种决策工具中，并非所有工具都适用于任何单个决策问题，而且任何特定的决策辅助工具可能并不适用于所有决策问题。本文回顾了多标准分析（MCA）的应用，并考虑了多标准分析在环境决策问题中的适用性。由于自然环境和决策环境具有多维度性，环境决策具有复杂性的特点。因此，MCA在这一领域得到了广泛应用。在环境影响评估（EIA）中，所评估影响的多个维度很容易在MCA中表示为多个标准。通过构建和阐明公众的价值观，MCA促进了涉及公众参与的废物管理和水资源规划问题。MCA还被应用于水质问题，使不可通约的标准能够纳入评估。可以在典型决策过程的背景下看待MCA对环境决策问题的适用性，这使得更容易确定MCA在各个决策阶段所能做出的贡献。当决策背景具有多个目标和多个标准、不可通约的标准、混合数据以及易于使用的需求，且分析背景具有多个参与者时，MCA可能特别适用。
