RISK‐BASED MULTIATTRIBUTE DECISION‐MAKING IN PROPERTY AND WATERSHED MANAGEMENT

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Determining best management systems for properties and evaluating their sustainability at the watershed scale are useful and important aspects of integrated watershed management. Multiattribute decision‐making (MADM) is very useful for modeling the selection of best management systems for properties in a watershed. This paper reviews four MADM approaches including utility theory, surrogate worth tradeoff, free iterative search and stochastic dominance with respect to a function (SDWF). Emphasis is on determining how the first three methods could be used to determine the best (most preferred) combinations of attributes and associated management systems for a property. An application of the expected utility method with risk neutral preferences is presented in which farmer's preferences for five attributes are used to rank five farming systems for an agricultural watershed in Missouri. A framework is presented for assessing the sustainability of the best management systems for all properties in a watershed and the cost‐effectiveness of policies for enhancing sustainable resource management at the watershed scale.