A multiobjective decision support system for water project portfolio selections

Recent rapid growth in the development and use of multiobjective decision-aiding methods has bypassed a class of decision problems common to at least three important federal water resources development programs. The reasons for this situation are revealed by an examination of these programs in the context of the evolution of federal water project planning procedures from a single objective to a multiple objective orientation. The study then selects one program for detailed analysis, examines the characteristics of the decision problem to determine the best solution approach, develops a multiobjective decision support system to overcome the problem, tests the decision support system by trial implementation using actual agency facilities, data and personnel, and evaluates the results. The new decision support system is not limited to the development of a mathematical decision-aiding algorithm, but also includes all other components necessary for effective decision making, including the development of an operational objectives set, implementing software, data collection system, and implementation plan.

Four additional contributions to multiobjective decision making are contained in the study:

1. An up-to-date and comprehensive survey of the use of multiobjective decision-aiding techniques in water resources planning, design and management is presented in the framework of a new taxonomy that promotes an understanding of the relationships among the various techniques and the conditions under which each may be used most advantageously.

2. A new multiobjective decision-aiding rrodel selection paradigm is developed and presented.

3. A new approach to the difficult problem of objective set specification is developed and described.

4. A new interactive multiobjective decision-aiding algorithm that overcomes several disadvantages of previously developed procedures is developed and presented.

Note: Abstract extracted from PDF file via OCR.