Multi-criteria decision analysis in adaptation decision-making: a flood case study in Finland

Decision-making for the purpose of adaptation to climate change typically involves multiple stakeholders, regions and sectors as well as multiple objectives related to the use of resources and perceived benefits. Standard cost–benefit analysis can be argued to take into account easily monetised effe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inRegional environmental change Vol. 13; no. 6; pp. 1171 - 1180
Main Authors Porthin, Markus, Rosqvist, Tony, Perrels, Adriaan, Molarius, Riitta
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.12.2013
Springer
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Adaptation
Analysis
Case studies
Climate Change
Climate Change/Climate Change Impacts
Decision analysis
Decision-making
Earth and Environmental Science
Environment
Floods
Geography
Global temperature changes
Nature Conservation
Oceanography
Original Article
Regional/Spatial Science
Studies
Finland
Flood protection
Climate change
Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA)
Adaptation
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Summary:Decision-making for the purpose of adaptation to climate change typically involves multiple stakeholders, regions and sectors as well as multiple objectives related to the use of resources and perceived benefits. Standard cost–benefit analysis can be argued to take into account easily monetised effects only. Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) embedded in participatory processes can therefore play an important role in defining the decision context and exploring stakeholders’ preferences. In this paper, a case study on flood protection of the Kokemäki river running through the city of Pori in West Finland was conducted. The study was realised as a MCDA workshop involving the key stakeholders of the region. The analysis produced a robust ranking of the considered flood protection alternatives. According to the stakeholders, the approach was useful as an exploratory way of gaining a deeper and shared understanding of the flood protection. It was shown that MCDA is well suited for decision-making in adaptation to climate change–enhanced extreme events.
ISSN:1436-3798
1436-378X
DOI:10.1007/s10113-013-0423-9