Socio-environmental tradeoff analysis using decision science tools to guide river management

Abstract

Across the globe, rivers are put into the service of meeting human needs and wants. Societal dependence on rivers and the consumptive benefits they provide has advanced at the unanticipated cost of degrading biodiversity and river ecosystem function. Socio-environmental tradeoff analysis is key to balance disparate interests for sustainable river management. Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) is a sub-discipline of decision science methods that aid decisions to resource management problems with multiple conflicting criteria and management alternatives. Techniques for MCDA are useful for tradeoff analysis but they are uncommonly used for river management, especially case studies based on incorporating the principles of river restoration into watershed management. I explore the qualitative and quantitative capabilities of MCDA with four stand-alone chapters that take a decision science approach towards balancing socio-environmental interests for large scale river management. Together, these chapters make a contribution toward bridging the gap between empirical freshwater science and normative decision making.