Web-based multiple criteria decision analysis: Web-HIPRE and the management of environmental uncertainty

The information revolution has opened a new era in decision support: the Internet and the World Wide Web have emerged as powerful new media for collecting, disseminating, and accessing information related to the sustainable development of life support systems. Web-based decision support tools are useful for addressing large scale, complex, and indeterminate problems, such as global climate change, that have consequences across physical, biological, and social dimensions. In this paper, we provide algorithms to extend the capabilities of Web-HIPRE, a Java-applet for multiple criteria analysis, developed by Hama, so that it constitutes a flexible and effective tool for environmental decision analysis under uncertainty. This tool is demonstrated using a case study of forest management in the province of New Brunswick, Canada: alternative forest utilization policies are evaluated in the context of ecological and socio-economic objectives. A new approach for multiple criteria decision analysis is put forth that investigates the robustness of policy alternatives to uncertainty. Numerical and theoretical results show that Web-HIPRE is a valuable instrument to promote ecological sustainability.