Decision Evaluation for Complex Risk Networked Systems Development Progress

Environmental management requires decision support tools that are able to integrate heterogeneous technical information with decision maker values and judgment. Decision Evaluation in Complex Risk Networked Systems (DECERNS) is a software system under development that has the objective of providing a methodology, computer models, and software tools to facilitate decision making in the field of sustainable land use and related areas. DECERNS will integrate risk assessment and decision analysis tools from multiple disciplines (e.g., geographical information systems tools for mapping and data analysis, ecological and human health risk models, economic analysis tools for evaluating costs, and tools for incorporating social choices) into a single, user-friendly software package. This paper provides an overview of the approach used in DECERNS followed by a brief overview of multi-criteria decision analysis methods and tools used in the project. Future plans for development and testing of the software tool will be discussed.