Multi-criteria approval for evaluating landscape management strategies (Case study: Fruška Gora National Park)

• Main Authors: Lakićević Milena D., Srđević Bojan M., Srđević Zorica B.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Matica srpska 2015-01-01
• Series: Zbornik Matice Srpske za Prirodne Nauke
• Subjects: decision making; management strategy; multi-criteria approval; Fruška Gora National Park
• Online Access: http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0352-4906/2015/0352-49061528099L.pdf

This paper deals with the problem of multi-criteria evaluation of four management strategies for Fruška Gora National Park. The criteria set was defined in ac­cordance with the IUCN guidelines for management of national parks. Four strategies were evaluated by testing preference intensities for each alternative with the respect to each cri­terion. Alternatives with preference above the approval threshold were approved, and a multi-criteria approval matrix was generated. According to the matrix, the most suitable management strategy was identified. It implies an intense protection of natural resources and landscape diversity in the national park by applying bio-engineering measures. This illustrative example proved that multi-criteria approval can be considered as a good deci­sion support tool when there is no need for a deeper insight into cardinal values of criteria weights and alternatives, or if the decision maker has to select few from many of alterna­tives to reduce the decision problem. For a more precise analysis, it is recommended to combine multi-criteria approval with other decision support tools, and future studies might deal with this problem in order to define an alternative framework for decision making in landscape management. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 174003: Theory and application of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) in multi-criteria decision making under conditions of risk and uncer­tainty (individual and group context]