832349 Collaborative decision analysis for wildlife management

Type
Lecture and seminar
Semester hours
2
Lecturer (assistant)
Mattsson, Brady
Organisation
Offered in
Wintersemester 2022/23
Languages of instruction
Englisch
Content

Introduction to concepts, theories, and underlying methodologies of structured decision-making and decision analysis as applied to collaborative wildlife management contexts that include multiple stakeholders and topic experts. Principles of formal adaptive management will also be covered. The course illustrates decision analysis as a science-policy interface method.

Analytical methodologies covered in the course include core team formation and problem framing, stakeholder selection and interaction, objectives hierarchy, means-ends diagram, alternative scenarios and management strategies, influence diagrams, multi-criteria decision analysis, Bayesian decision networks, knowledge elicitation with Delphi method, sensitivity analysis, expected value of information, Bayesian updating, and translating analysis results into management recommendations.

Illustrated examples from temperate ecosystems, including coastal, freshwater wetlands, arable ecosystems, and mountain forests.
Objective (expected results of study and acquired competences)

Students identify and distinguish varying concepts, theories, and methodologies underlying collaborative decision analysis and structured decision making. They explain how these approaches can inform wildlife management and apply them to a realistic case study in a semester project.

Specifically, they frame the problem along with identifying stakeholders, constructing objectives, distinguishing external factors, developing future scenarios, and listing available management actions. They then develop alternative decision options based on contrasting future scenarios. Students predict outcomes of decision options and external factors. They then specify tradeoffs between objectives and across stakeholders to identify the best decision option using optimization. Students are thus able to interpret results from a decision analysis.
You can find more details like the schedule or information about exams on the course-page in BOKUonline.