Management Decision-making Process Research Articles

Factors influencing compliance of closed fishing season: lessons from small-scale coastal fisheries in the Central Region of Ghana

This paper contributes to the literature on marine conservation and its implication for coastal governance and sustainability. The study investigates factors influencing fisherfolk compliance with the temporal fishing bans in Ghana. The purpose is to understand the factors influencing compliance behaviour to help design an improved conservation strategy to achieve management objectives. A mixed-method approach was employed, consisting of 200 household surveys and 17 in-depth interviews with stakeholders at the local, district, regional, and national levels. The results reveal that a combination of instrumental and normative factors influences fisherfolk’s compliance behaviour concerning the closed fishing season. Participation of fisherfolk and coastal communities in the fisheries management decision-making processes positively influenced compliance. The key drivers of non-compliance with the closed season emanate from a perceived lack of ecological effectiveness, lack of enforcement of sanctions, and lack of compensation for loss of income during the ban. The study suggests co-management that includes fisheries agencies and traditional authorities as a viable option for fisheries management and marine conservation initiatives. In addition, the paper recommends the introduction of conservation payment schemes alongside strict monitoring of the temporal ban on fishing.

Urban water health: A conceptual framework and assessment system

The quantitative evaluation of urban water health (UWH) is a crucial decision-making process in water management. Healthy water not only encompasses excellent water quality and a diverse ecology but also has other characteristics, such as the amount of water resources, supply-use-drainage problems, flooding, water cycle, and so on. This study proposes a theoretical framework and an indicator system for UWH that integrates ecosystem health and water cycle health. Subsequently, considering the time scale and regional characteristics, an objective evaluation model that combined the real coding accelerated genetic algorithm (RAGA) method and the projection pursuit (PP) method was applied to calculate indicator weights and thresholds for the urban water health index (UWHI). UWHI standard thresholds were calculated as (0.04, 0.87], (0.87, 1.80], (1.80, 2.73], (2.73, 3.50], and (3.50, 4.01] corresponding to the categories of Sick, Unhealthy, Subhealthy, Healthy, and Excellent, respectively. Using Chongqing as a case study, the results showed that the UWHI increased from 1.796 to 2.668 in 2011–2020, and the health level improved from Unhealthy to Subhealthy, approaching Healthy. For each subsystem, the results indicated that the health status of the water cycle was superior to that of the water ecosystem. Finally, a detailed analysis of the changes in the indicators identified important factors affecting water health. The results of this study revealed that the main weaknesses in Chongqing were severe soil erosion, large domestic water use, high water consumption rates, and unsatisfactory water functional areas and indicated key priorities on the path to future water management.

ВПЛИВ ІМІДЖУ МЕНЕДЖЕРА НА ПРОЦЕС ПРИЙНЯТТЯ УПРАВЛІНСЬКИХ РІШЕНЬ

The article examines the specifics of the influence of the manager's image on the process of managerial decision-making. An analysis of the main conditions for making management decisions was carried out. Factors influencing the process of management decision-making are considered. An analysis of the manager's functions in the decision-making process was carried out. The most characteristic components of the leader's image have been identified: personal, social and professional. A good manager in the course of his work must effectively combine all three components, which are interconnected and complement each other. The main properties of the manager's image are highlighted. Recommendations for creating the image of a business person are highlighted. It is substantiated that in the managerial activity of a manager, image qualities are important: empathy, the art of persuasion, accessibility, sociability, the ability to maintain feedback and compliance with the job status. The manager's image has the property of psychological influence on the consciousness of subordinates and regulation of their behavior. A special place in the organization is occupied by a manager who possesses the potential of influence and is able, thanks to the management resources available to him, to actively influence the actions of subordinates in the team, to motivate them to appropriate models of behavior, that is, to be maximally involved in the process of managing the team. Thanks to organizational skills in building management relationships, the manager's image affects the process of information exchange, contributes to the elimination of the lack of information necessary for decision-making, thereby increasing the effectiveness of management. In addition, a positive image affects the formation of a social attitude of readiness to implement a management decision, order or order. Success in activities causes subordinates to want to identify themselves with the leader, accept and share his norms and values, and ultimately, imitate and follow a certain model of behavior. The image prepares the communication process, and then participates in it, ensuring the relationship of persuasion and communication, thereby changing attitudes and regulating the behavior of the object.

Bone marrow lesions of the femoral head: can radiomics distinguish whether it is reversible?

Contrary to the self-limiting nature of reversible bone marrow lesions, irreversible bone marrow lesions require early surgical intervention to prevent further morbidity. Thus, early discrimination of irreversible pathology is necessitated. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of radiomics and machine learning regarding this topic. A database was scanned for patients who had undergone MRI of the hip for differential diagnosis of bone marrow lesions and had had follow-up images acquired within 8 weeks after the first imaging. Images that showed resolution of oedema were included in the reversible group. The remainders that showed progression into characteristic signs of osteonecrosis were included in the irreversible group. Radiomics was performed on the first MR images, calculating first- and second-order parameters. Support vector machine and random forest classifiers were performed using these parameters. Thirty-seven patients (seventeen osteonecrosis) were included. A total of 185 ROIs were segmented. Fortyseven parameters were accepted as classifiers with an area under the curve value ranging from 0.586 to 0.718. Support vector machine yielded a sensitivity of 91.3% and a specificity of 85.1%. Random forest classifier yielded a sensitivity of 84.8% and a specificity of 76.7%. Area under curves were 0.921 for support vector machine and 0.892 for random forest classifier. Radiomics analysis could prove useful for discrimination of reversible and irreversible bone marrow lesions before the irreversible changes occur, which could prevent morbidities of osteonecrosis by guiding the decisionmaking process for management.

Assessing the economic efficiency of green investments in the context of sustainable development of the territory

<abstract> <p>This article proposes theoretical and analytical foundations for the economic assessment of the results of green investments in terms of promoting territorial sustainability. The green investments are presented as resources aimed at reducing the economic damage from environmental pollution through the creation of conditions or direct impact activities. However, the discounting application distorts their significance. The result of real green investment is capital, which is often specific and difficult to assess. It distinguishes them markedly from other investments. Green investments do not require directive advantages, such as a social discount rate. It is necessary to address the results of green investment in terms of their value for the sustainability of socio-economic systems. The accounting of total costs and results for the system when making decisions will allow for reducing territorial exploitation by social groups. Overcoming the discounting contradictions while assessing the economic effectiveness of green investments requires improving the adequacy of green investments results' evaluation in terms of the territory's sustainability transition, the differentiation of discount rates for various results, their costs and the years of their appearance and the use of compounding to assess the accumulation of the total result of a project based on the analysis of its entire life cycle. The study proposes a system for assessing the economic value of the growth of an ecosystem's assimilation potential and the consequences of its decline in relation to the costs of building the assimilation potential, the increase in the maximum allowable load on the ecosystem and the environmental pollution damage. To estimate the economic effect of the growth of an ecosystem's assimilation potential, it is necessary to consider the rate of return for its owner. The results of this study will allow for reducing the assessment distortions and informational limitations of the managerial decision-making process.</p> </abstract>

ПРОБЛЕМАТИКА ГЕНДЕРНОГО БАЛАНСУ В КОТНЕКСТІ УПРАВЛІННЯ ЕФЕКТИВНІСТЮ ЗАКЛАДІВ ВИЩОЇ ОСВІТИ

In the context of the social performance of higher education institutions, gender balance is an important aspect, because it ensures equality. The initial goal of gender parity in the management process of higher education institutions is equal access to the management decision-making process between men and women. The article examines the issue of gender balance as one of the aspects of the social performance of higher education institutions (HEI’s). In addition, the article analyzes the state of gender balance among PhD students of higher education, and determines the index of gender balance for some higher education institutions of Odesa. At the moment of writing this article, there is a greater number of men in managerial positions among technical specialties, and vice versa, in humanitarian specialties, a greater number of managerial positions are held by women. In general, among the studied higher education institutions, the average indicator of gender parity is equal, although the gender parity index is significantly lower than one in technical departments. It is important to note that when ensuring such gender parity, other qualities of a person should also be taken into account, first of all, his competence and ability to fulfill the requirements imposed on him by these duties. That is why the author of the article proposes to ensure this gender parity precisely by popularizing traditionally "male" specialties among women, and vice versa. Overcoming such gender stereotypes will allow building gender equality in the field of higher education. Based on the analyzed data, the implementation of gender equality with the use of "soft power" is proposed, and the case with the use of "hard power" is predicted. The author of the article believes that the policy of implementing gender equality among all participants in the educational process should be implemented as an aspect of the autonomy of higher education institutions. According to the author, this will be able to create a significant competitive advantage for the institution in the market of providing educational services. In addition, author emphasizes that the process of building a gender equality policy should be gradual, since this approach allows you to assess the performance of various measures and make adjustments to improve their implementation.

УПРАВЛЕНИЕ ЦИФРОВОЙ ТРАНСФОРМАЦИЕЙ ПРЕДПРИЯТИЯ: ОРГАНИЗАЦИОННЫЕ И МЕТОДИЧЕСКИЕ АСПЕКТЫ ОЦЕНКИ УРОВНЯ ЗРЕЛОСТИ ЭКОСИСТЕМЫ ТЕХНОЛОГИЙ ИНТЕРНЕТА ВЕЩЕЙ

In the article, the authors reveal the directions of solving the problem of forming effective methodological support for the digital transformation management system of industrial enterprises. The main focus of the work is on the development of the enterprise’s management system and digital infrastructure based on Industry 4.0 technologies in a high-risk environment and uncertainty. The study presents a methodology for assessing the level of digital maturity of an industrial enterprise and its infrastructure built on the basis of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. The developed author’s methodology includes a system of criteria for assessing the level of digital maturity, a mathematical model and a system of recommendation characteristics of the values obtained based on the evaluation results. Based on the results of the evaluation system, it is possible to conduct a comparative analysis of the level of digital maturity of the infrastructure and infrastructure of selected business entities. The model can also be used to analyze and make management decisions about the initiation of IoT projects and the allocation of resources between strategic projects of digital transformation of an industrial enterprise. The developed mathematical model is a point-based one. IoT projects that form the digital infrastructure of enterprises have been selected as objects of digital transformation research. The novelty of the research lies in the development of a methodology for assessing the maturity level of the IoT infrastructure in the digital transformation project management system to improve the efficiency of project management processes. The main purpose of this research is to develop tools to support the management decision-making process in the digital transformation project management system. The proposed developments can be applied to the management of projects for the digital transformation of industrial enterprises and the development of IoT infrastructure. When developing a methodology for assessing the level of digital maturity and infrastructure built on the basis of IoT technologies, system analysis methods such as analysis and synthesis, expert method and mathematical modeling were used. Their complex combination made it possible to work out all the elements of the methodology, as well as to systematize the composition of the evaluation criteria, taking into account the qualitative and quantitative reflection of the characteristics of the digital infrastructure.

Can Utilizing Business Intelligence with Electronic Dental Record Data Improve Business Decisions for Dental Organizations: A Scoping Review

Abstract Background Business intelligence can give businesses the ability to understand their strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement and can help reduce uncertainty in the decision-making process. With the increasing use of electronic dental records creating more and more dental data each day, it is an opportune time to determine if the data can be coupled with business intelligence systems to improve the management decision-making process in dental organizations to result in service improvement. Methods A scoping review was performed to map the research on the use of business intelligence in dental organizations and to identify any gaps in the existing literature. This scoping review was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-Scr) framework. The following databases were searched: Medline, Embase, Emcare, Cinahl, Informit, Web of Science, and Scopus. Data extracted from the articles included the organization type, purpose/aims, the software utilized, data sources utilized, outcomes measured, decision-makers involved, service benefit type, and service improvements. Results In all, 945 articles were found during the search strategy, with 25 articles selected for full-text review. Of these 25 articles, only 3 met the final inclusion in this review. All three included articles were centered around dental school organizations and all situated in the United States. All three articles demonstrated a benefit from management decision-makers utilizing business intelligence systems for improving service efficiency. Conclusion There is limited evidence to show that managers utilizing business intelligence systems in dental school organizations can lead to improvements in the organization's services. There was no evidence to support the use of a business intelligence system in other types of dental organizations. More research is required in this area.

Managerial self-actualisation in the era of business intelligence

The new technological evolution has influenced the global business with the use and application of business intelligence tools that provide information accuracy and conformity to managerial decisions, leading to organisational efficiency and corporate performance. In the global business environment, there is a need of social awareness for the improvement of the human well-being. Managers need to create a knowledge base with the purpose to understand the needs of the global society. This paper aims to present literature insights, from both philosophical and IT dimension, proposing initial research undertakings that should enhance our understanding of the new managerial self-actualisation era. Thus, it is argued that corporate performance is a well-balanced combination between technological trends and human values based on the self-actualisation continuous managerial decision process.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF MANAGERIAL DECISIONMAKING DURING A CRISIS IN A DISCONTINUOUS BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

Crisis are integral development components of all organizations which are functioning within a discontinuous environment. That is why management in organizations must become aware of the need for implementing the function of crisis management. Crisis management within organizations can be divided into two separate categories: active and reactive crisis management, depending on the specific crisis development phase. Crisis management existence will simplify the process of managerial decision-making in a crisis. It will also facilitate the prevention and recovery of crises. This paper explains the notion of crisis and its development phases, and indicates the need for crisis management within contemporary organizations. It analyses the problems of managerial decision-making during crisis periods from a certain point of view and it emphasises one approach to managerial decision-making.

Intertwining green SCM- and agile SCM-based decision-making framework for sustainability using GIVTFNs

PurposeSupply chain management (SCM)-embedded valuable resources, such as capital, raw-materials, products, partners, customers and finished inventories, where the evaluation of environmental texture and flexibilities are needed to perceive sustainability. The present study aims to identify and evaluate the directory of green and agile (G-A) attributes based on decision support framework (DSF) for identifying dominating measures in SCM.Design/methodology/approachDSF is developed by exploiting generalized interval valued trapezoidal fuzzy numbers (GIVTFNs). Two technical approaches, i.e. degree of similarity approach (DSA) and distance approach (DA) under the extent boundaries of GIVTFNs, are implicated for data analytics and for recognizing constructive G-A measures based on comparative study for robust decision. A fuzzy-based performance indicator, i.e. fuzzy performance important index (FPII), is presented to enumerate the weak and strong G-A characteristics to manage knowledge risks in allied business environment.FindingsThe modeling is illustrated from the insights of decision-makers for augmenting business value based on cognitive identification of measures, where the best performance score is identified by the “sustainable packaging” under the traits of green supply chain management (GSCM). “The use of Web-based applications” under the traits of agile supply chain management (ASCM) and “Outsourcing flexibility” under traits of ASCM is found as the second and third most significant performance characteristics for business sustainability. Additionally, the “Reutilization (recycling) and reprocessing” under GSCM in manufacturing and “Responsiveness and speed toward customers needs” under ASCM are found difficult in attainment.Research limitations/implicationsThe G-A evaluation will assist in attaining performance excellence in day-to-day operations and overall functioning. The outcomes will help executives to plan strategic objectives and attaining success.Originality/valueTo reinforce the capabilities of SCM, wide extent of G-A dimensions are presented, concept of FPII is reported to manage knowledge risks based on identification of strong attributes and two technical approaches, i.e. DSA and DA under GIVTFNs are presented for attaining robust decision and directing managerial decision-making process.

ECONOMIC DIAGNOSTICS IN THE SYSTEM OF INFORMATION SUPPORT FOR MANAGEMENT DECISION-MAKING

The article updates the problem of the role, place and informative possibilities of economic diagnostics for making managerial decisions regarding the innovative development of the enterprise. A significant number of scientific publications of Ukrainian and foreign economists devoted to various aspects of managerial innovations were considered, and the need for a systematic search for ways of innovative transformation of managerial decision-making for the effective development of enterprises was revealed. Analytical models of managerial decision-making based on knowledge were analyzed, the necessity of using business analytics for multi-criteria decision-making was revealed. The factors of the impact of analytical information on the quality of management decisions regarding innovative development, technological improvement, productivity growth and value creation in the organizational environment are analyzed. The need to develop a system of information and analytical support for enterprise management using an analysis mechanism, the implementation of which is based on monitoring the achievement of predetermined evaluation criteria, is substantiated. The role of economic diagnostics in increasing the efficiency of management of the enterprise’s activities has been clarified. It is proposed to consider economic diagnostics as a leading element of the information support system of the management decision-making process, both to identify the causes of disagreements and to find factors for accelerating innovative transformations. The established diagnostic indicators of the system of innovative development of the enterprise are considered and the author’s approach to determining the factors of coordination is proposed. Thus, it was established that the use of economic diagnostics in the management of innovative development allows to increase the informative relevance for making conceptual management decisions.. Further research is proposed to focus on the development of methodological principles for the introduction of economic diagnostics into the system of management decision-making in operational, tactical and strategic directions.

Development of a methodological approach to the procedure for assessing the quality and effectiveness of the management decision–making mechanism

Currently, active developments are underway to implement human and production resource management standards, new management mechanisms are emerging and being supplemented, but first of all, management activities can be assessed by the management decisions taken by the decision-maker, and the results that this management decision has brought. The relevance of the chosen topic is due to the fact that at present and in previous years there has been an increase in some independent variables, so management decisions at enterprises and other organisations are becoming more difficult and require taking into account larger criteria than usual. Therefore, the choice or development of a competent methodology for the management decision-making process would help the decision-maker not only to choose the most effective management decision, but also to minimise possible financial, social and other risks. The groups of factors that have a significant impact on the process of developing management solutions have been identified. The authors propose a step-by-step methodology for assessing the effectiveness level of the management decision-making and implementation mechanism. An updated version of the structural content of the methodological components necessary for the development of management solutions is proposed.

Using consensus methods to standardise judgement-based guidelines required for player management decision-making processes: A case study in professional rugby union

Standards are pivotal for generating the evidence required to manage players in professional sport environments like rugby union. Resultantly, using a three-step qualitative approach, this study aimed to formulate a consensus as a subjective standard for evidence generation pertaining to player management. The consensus statement intended to identify evidence on peaks/troughs in player external training loads using Global Positioning System (GPS)-based information in the High-Performance Unit (HPU) of a Gallagher Premiership rugby union club. Initially, a systematic review adhering to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) framework was conducted to unravel the factors considered (literature-based cues) when identifying peaks/troughs in player external training loads using GPS information. Next, thematic analysis conducted on the data obtained from 7 semi-structured interviews with HPU staff highlighted that they consider 6 factors with 38 elements (practitioner-based cues) during player external training load management. Thereafter, guided by the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE) II instrument and by utilising selected elements representing 4/6 factors (healthy player, GPS information, longitudinal durations and practitioner judgements on information), a consensus among practitioners for identifying peaks/troughs in player external training loads was developed with the participation of five HPU members using the nominal group technique (NGT). Practitioners reached an agreement with regard to 12 indicators to subjectively identify peaks/troughs in player external training loads within the considered environment.

Research on the problem of comprehensive evaluation

Comprehensive evaluation is a systematic and complex work. It is one of the important means for people to know things, understand things and influence things. It is a management cognitive process and a management decision-making process. It is widely used in the fields of economy, society, science and technology, education, management and engineering practice. Some mature theories and methods have been formed around the purpose and process of evaluation, the construction of evaluation index system, the determination of evaluation index weight and value, the source and processing of data, the integration of evaluation information and the application of evaluation results. This paper mainly introduces the background of comprehensive evaluation, commonly used comprehensive evaluation methods and their advantages and disadvantages, discusses the most critical step in comprehensive evaluation - determination of weights, mainly introduces several methods to determine weights, and analyzes their advantages and disadvantages. In view of the limitations of subjective and objective methods to determine weights in the process of comprehensive evaluation, we use the maximum deviation model to solve the proportion of subjective and objective weighting methods, Make the combination weighting more effective.

The Nonlinear Model of Intersectoral Linkages of Kazakhstan for Macroeconomic Decision-Making Processes in Sustainable Supply Chain Management

We provide a nonlinear model of intersectoral balance with constant elasticity of substitution (CES) production functions of industries and CES utility function of final consumer for the study of intersectoral linkages in the Kazakhstan economy. The model is formalized in terms of the primal problem of resource allocation and the corresponding Fenchel dual problem which solution gives costs of inputs of industries in a supply network. We identify the model with the actual data of the Input-Output tables of Kazakhstan and estimate the elasticity of substitution of production factors for the aggregated industry complexes. With the help of developed framework, we evaluate the inter-industry financial flows in the aggregated supply network for the period 2013–2020 and compare the results with the actual data of Kazakhstan. The developed framework can be used to support decision-making processes in sustainable supply chain management in a situation of the government economic policy change and external shocks. Using the developed framework, we evaluate the risks for Kazakhstan’s supply chains in scenario of sharp weakening of the national currency.

Decision support framework for inventory management combining fuzzy multicriteria methods, genetic algorithm, and artificial neural network

Decision support tools, within the Industry 4.0 perspective, have increasingly impacted different operations and supply chain management (OSCM) areas, such as inventory management. Within the digital transformation era, multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) and machine learning (ML) can be used to improve inventory management decisions. Despite their importance, the literature lacks empirical studies involving advanced solutions that combine both approaches to support practitioners in real-life settings. This is especially relevant for maintenance, repair, and operation (MRO) inventories, which usually present several SKUs with irregular demand patterns and difficult forecasting. Therefore, this study proposes a decision support framework for inventory management, combining MCDM and ML approaches, and applies it to a railway logistics operator to assist its MRO inventory management decision-making process. The first stage of the framework consists of applying a hybrid MCDM method that combines fuzzy logic with the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and VIseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) methods to rank and select SKUs according to importance and criticality. Once the most critical SKUs are revealed, a second stage of the framework is introduced to forecast the demand for these SKUs through an ML model, which combines a genetic algorithm and an artificial neural network (GA-ANN). Research findings point to a considerable improvement in the accuracy of the demand forecast for SKUs compared to the previous forecast by the company, and the forecasting methods support vector machine (SVM) and exponential smoothing. The results of the combined approaches are consolidated into a management dashboard, which improves the agility and quality of the analyzed company's decision-making process in inventory management. Therefore, practitioners can also take stock of the proposed framework as a semi-automatic management artefact to enhance decision-making from a digital transformation view in a vital area of OSCM.

Evaluation of Fresh Groundwater Lens Volume and Its Possible Use in Nauru Island

A proper management of fresh groundwater lenses in small islands is required in order to avoid or at least limit uncontrolled saltwater intrusion and guarantee the availability of the resource even during drought occurrences. An accurate estimation of the freshwater volume stored in the subsoil is a key step in the water management decision process. This study focused on understanding the hydrogeological system behaviour and on assessing the sustainable use of the groundwater resource in Nauru Atoll Island (Pacific Ocean). A first phase, concerning the hydrogeological characterization of the island, highlighted the occurrence of few drought-resilient freshwater lenses along the seashore. The second part of the study focused on the characterization of a freshwater lens found in the northern coastal area and identified such area as the most suitable for the development of groundwater infrastructures for water withdrawal. The characterization activities allowed quantifying the freshwater lens thickness and volume in order to assess the capability to satisfy the population water demand. A geo-electrical tomography survey was carried out, and a 3D density-dependent numerical model was implemented in SEAWAT. The model results demonstrated that in small islands freshwater can unexpectedly accumulate underground right along the seashore and not in the centre of the island as is commonly believed. Furthermore, the model can constitute a useful tool to manage the groundwater resources and would allow the design of sustainable groundwater exploitation systems, avoiding saltwater intrusion worsening.

Joint venture wildlife management of the Loliondo Game Controlled Area in Tanzania: a multi-criteria analysis

ABSTRACT This study focuses on wildlife management in the Loliondo Game Controlled Area (LGCA) in the northern region of Tanzania. There are ongoing concerns surrounding wildlife management in the LGCA including an acute lack of community involvement in the wildlife management planning and decision-making process, poorly defined property rights, and the unequitable distribution of the economic benefits generated from the ecotourism and trophy hunting schemes being implemented. Employing multi-criteria analysis techniques, this study explores and evaluates the alternative wildlife management options for the wildlife tourism site at issue. The joint venture wildlife management option has been identified as the most preferable. Under a joint venture wildlife management scheme, trophy hunting and ecotourism is allowed in the area designated for conservation, while livestock grazing, agriculture, and village settlements are permitted in the remaining area of the LGCA. Under this scheme, a community-based organization (CBO) is granted user rights to wildlife and other natural resources in the conservation area. A joint venture programme is established between commercial investors and a CBO. The study argues that joint venture wildlife management should be introduced to ensure well-defined property rights, implement efficient wildlife conservation, and the equitable share of economic benefits across the various stakeholders.

Inference of Submerged Macrophytes Colonization Using the Weights of Evidence Method

In some tropical reservoirs, aquatic macrophytes have covered extensive areas and it is difficult to monitor, control and forecast their proliferation. The major issues are economic and ecological because macrophyte growth has caused significant financial losses to hydroelectric power plants and has affected the ecological balance. Thus, this work aimed to infer the most likely areas to be colonized by Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV), using influencing factors, such as the morphometric aspects of the area and any preexisting vegetation, to support the management decision-making process. Four field surveys were carried out to collect hydroacoustic data, which indicate presence of SAV, in Taquaruçu reservoir, Paranapanema River, Brazil. The inference procedure was applied using the weights of evidence method. The results showed that depths up to 6 m have a high probability of colonization and that points with five or six colonized neighbor’s cells, considering a regular grid, are also more likely to be colonized. The weights for the slope map behaved differently at each survey interval. The probability maps of colonization were generated and can be very useful in supporting the decision-making process of SAV management activities, such as concentrating the monitoring efforts for the high-probability colonization areas, in this case those which the lowest depths or next to colonized regions.