Recent developemts in multiple criteria decision making

Abstract

Problems involving more than one criterion abound. To help in the solution of such problems, a field of management science and operations research known as multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) has emerged to help solve such problems. In this paper we discuss some recent developments in this important field.

Wildlife management using the AHP

“…The strength of the AHP in this context, which transcends the technical criticisms of some of its aspects, is its appeal to decision makers, who have little or no experience of OR, as a natural way of incorporating the different iJ!Commensurate, and often conflicting, criteria into the decision model and of establishing tradeoffs between them. Doubtless a number of other discrete alternative multiple criteria decision making approaches (possibly less controversial than the AIIP) could have been used for these problems (see, for example, Zionts and Lofti [23]). What is important is that the approach be easily used and understood by wildlife managers, and the results readily checked against their intuitive feelings.…”