Improving decision-making for land-use management key ideas for an integrated approach based on MCA negotiation forums

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to contribute to making the Multicriteria Analysis (MCA) approach a better aid to environmental decision making than it has been to date. In order to do so, the current problems and weaknesses are first discussed in relation to Environmental Impact Assessment, Cost-Benefit Analysis and MCA as evaluation tools in support of land-use management. The unsatisfactory handling of different views and interest conflicts arising from the many players involved is identified as a negative common structural feature. It is also noted that a suitable framework through which these basic approaches could be integrated is still not available. Accordingly, an integrated Decision Analysis approach that could overcome some of these weaknesses is outlined and the role MCA would play in it is discussed. The key components of this approach are: i) the significant role given to public participation by means of a specific administrative procedure which provides a formal forum for negotiation based on an MCA framework; ii) the use of specially designed evaluation indices to represent impacts within the classic two-entry MCA evaluation matrix. A case study on an important Chilean irrigation project is taken as an illustration to show some of the ideas proposed.