Foresters and natural resource managers must balance conflicting objectives when developing land-management plans. Conflicts may encompass economic, environmental, social, cultural, technical, and aesthetic objectives. Selecting the best combination of management uses from numerous objectives is difficult and challenging. Multi-Criteria Decision Models (MCDM) provide a systematic means for comparing tradeoffs and selecting alternatives that best satisfy the decisionmaker's objectives. First developed during World War II by the U.S. military for strategic decisionmaking, MCDM have since been applied to such diverse fields as energy and financial planning, manufacturing, real estate investment, reservoir control, solid waste management, and water distribution. In recent years, the use of MCDM in forestry and natural resources management has generated a substantial body of literature. This annotated bibliography includes 124 important references ranging from theoretical studies to real-world applications of MCDM.
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