Multi-criteria Decision Analysis for Spatial Forest Assessment. A Case Study of Highlands, New Jersey
Nazia Arbab, Assistant Research Professor
Rutgers University
Abstract
One of the challenging tasks for environmental planners and policy makers is to integrate all the different values of the land to make a final decision about land allocation. This research outlines a practical application of spatial multi criteria analysis as a decision support tool by integrating values of various land use and its attributes in the Highlands region of New Jersey as a case study. This tool provides the framework to incorporate the views of stakeholders from diverse regions of New Jersey. We use analytical hierarchy pairwise comparison (AHPC) technique to organize and create weighted criteria to solve complex problems in equitable and efficient means. In this research, decision making process is implemented as mental process of assessment and all the Geographic Information System (GIS) data is considered with different forest values. The forest values are based on the ranking assigned by several local stakeholders vs experts views to capture locally relevant and universally broader issues such as climate change. The developed methodology would be generalized and is applicable globally.
