Trade-off Tools: Spatial Based Multi-Criteria Analysis

Deliberative Multi-Criteria Analysis

Water planners often need to access and analyse large amounts of environmental, social and economic information. The transparent and logical treatment of this information and the use of value judgement incorporating public opinion and policy and management goals can be achieved using multi-criteria analysis (MCA).

The Multi-Criteria Analysis Shell for Spatial Decision Support (MCAS-S) is a software tool developed by the Bureau of Rural Sciences that brings the MCA process into the decision-makers realm. It is an easy-to-use, flexible tool that promotes: insightful desktop combination and study of different types of mapped information understanding of the relationships between the decision-making process and the available spatial data interactive ‘live-update' and mapping of alternative project scenarios.  GIS programming is not required, removing the usual technical obstacles to non-GIS users. Managers, policy-makers and land management researchers at the national, state and local level involved in land resource evaluation and decision-making will find MCAS-S a helpful tool, particularly those working with spatial data with limited GIS support. MCAS-S can assist in participatory processes and workshop situations where a clear understanding of varying approaches to spatial data management and information arrangement is necessary. Stakeholders can see the potential impacts that their decisions may make.

The particular advantages of the MCAS-S tool are its flexibility, simplicity, the capability to visualise spatial data and the linkages between spatial data, and its suitability for use in group and participatory processes. The MCAS-S work environment provides for multiple map display, combination and manipulation, live update of changes, and development of spider/radar plots important in ecosystem service assessments. These and other capabilities promote clear visualisation of the relationships among the decision, the science, other constraints and the spatial data.

Latest Edition

MCAS-S is the latest of several MCA decision aids used in the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry policy environment since the early 1990s. The current version was released in October 2009. MCAS-S is currently being used at the national, regional and catchment scale for:

• Great Barrier Reef water quality – informing investment under the Caring for our Country Reef Rescue Initiative to improve water quality in the Great Barrier Reef lagoon through improved agricultural land management practices
• Wind and Water Erosion – prioritising areas affected by or at risk of wind and water erosion for the Caring for our Country business plan
• Invasive species risk assessments – informing biosecurity risk assessment processes by overlaying ecological data with potential distributions of invasive species based on climate niche modelling outputs

Access to the Tool

The MCAS-S software package can be downloaded from the BRS website freely, and contains an MCAS-S installer, a sample project, setup and the MCAS-S user guide. You can download the MCAS-S version 2.1 installer and user guide here.

For more information

• Multi-Criteria Analysis Shell for Spatial Decision Support (MCAS-S)
• MCAS-S User's Manual (Bureau of Rural Sciences, October 2009)

Related Links

• Media Release: BRS Releases New Version of Popular Multi-Criteria Analysis Software. Bureau of Rural Sciences.