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Land Use Decisions and Site Selection: a GIS-based Method
Abstract
A geographic information system is configured with a graphical user interface to enable the integration of expert analysis with public perceptions of information in a scenario based decision framework. The system, ASSESS — A System for SElecting Suitable Sites, requires clear problem definition to establish decision variables (criteria) which are addressed by: thematic data selection, interpretation of theme attributes to assign rating values; and arithmetic combination to generate scenarios.
GIS functionality is used to capture data, establish spatial alignment between themes and to rasterise all vector data. Theme based attribute tables are reviewed by experts to define initial sets of suitability ratings. System users then select themes and adjust ratings to represent their own knowledge and/or attitude assessments as decision scenarios. The system objective is to apply a selection sieve to identify areas with a high likelihood of satisfying site suitability and land use decision needs, in contrast to a quantitative analysis with its aim of an optimised outcome.
The system is fast, scalable from whole continents to small regions and provides a transparent, defensible and versatile decision support environment. The method’s application is outlined for site selection for radioactive waste disposal.
... If a GIS-based EIS has an interface that allows the user to modify or reinterpret information or functions then decision support and scenario planning becomes a part of the site selection process (Veitch, 1997). Hence, when computer-based Decision Support Systems (DSS) are used to support decision-making the scope for learning and adaptability expands (Sprague & Watson, 1986). ...
... Classical rational decision theory identifies three stages in the decisionmaking process: Intelligence -define the problem, Design -look at alternatives and Choice -select an alternative (Simon, 1960). These stages are identified in the design and implementation of an EIS incorporating decision support for site selection (Veitch, 1997). ...
... For example, Jankowski, 1995;Stein et al. 1995;Arentze et ai. 1996;Watson & Wadsworth, 1996;Foster & McDonald, 1997;Alencar et aI., 1997;Fischer, 1997;Foster & McDonald, 1997;Lenz, 1997;Swetnam et aI., 1997;Veitch, 1997. The purpose of each EIS will indicate the necessary functions but common to all is their need to avoid being overly complex and cumbersome. ...
Lessons are presented that have been derived from an Environmental Information System (EIS) developed to assist the potentially contentious decision-making task of selecting a suitable site for the disposal of Australia’s low-level, and short-lived intermediate-level radioactive waste. The EIS was developed using a Geographic Information System (GIS) and includes a graphic display, tools and functions menus, menus to access theme data, and a decision and interpretation menu. The EIS, named ASSESS, highlights the benefits of having identified a clear purpose such as site selection. For the system to be appropriate for the user and its clients it should balance a simple design with the ability to perform complex tasks.
... monitoring (Schimak 1994) and distributed information provision , EDSS proj ects are still less likely to encounter. EDSS's have a strong background in North America (Quinn 2000) and Australia (Veitch 1998), while they seem to be ignored in Europe (in turn, Europe is much stronger in data management issues). ...
... An example for such SDS is land management, where the task involves information from such different areas as geology, water resource management, agriculture, economy and many more. An example of such a system is the ASSESS software (Veitch 1998), which has been used for land management issues of various types in Australia ( e.g. the selection of waste disposal sites. In addition to criteria coming from these different disciplines, optimal use of financial resources is always an important issue. ...
This volume contains a newly compiled version of the Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Environmental Software Systems 2001 (ISESS 2001), published by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) under ISBN 3-901882-14-6. The original version was a printed softcover book. This SECOND EDITION contains the scanned and OCR’ed proceedings as one document and has been produced with permission of the copyright holder, IFIP and IFIP WG5.11 “Computers and Environment”. The intention behind creating this SECOND EDITION was to make those volumes of ENVIRONMENTAL SOFTWARE SYSTEMS easily available on-line which are not available through a commercial publisher. This edition has been created based on a scan of an original book.
... monitoring (Schimak 1994) and distributed information provision , EDSS projects are still less likely to encounter. EDSS's have a strong background in North America (Quinn 2000, Lam 1998) and Australia (Veitch 1998), while they seem to be ignored in Europe (in turn, Europe is much stronger in data management issues). ...
... An example for such SDS is land management, where the task involves information from such different areas as geology, water resource management, agriculture, economy and many more. An example of such a system is the ASSESS software (Veitch 1998), which has been used for land management issues of various types in Australia (e.g. the selection of waste disposal sites. In addition to criteria coming from these different disciplines, optimal use of financial resources is always an important issue. ...
Many disciplines require decisions which are related to spatial information. In particular, most of the environmental decision processes are tightly related to the spatial properties of information. Environmental Decision Support Systems are therefore often related to the spatial properties of the underlying information and the required analysis methods. This paper gives an introduction into a project started in summer 2000. The paper decribes goals and ideas which we intend to achieve within the next two years. It is clearly a “will-be” paper and is intended to foster the discussion of future goals. There are certain technological ideas which will presented as well, but they are still in the initial stage.
... Despite its simplicity, it has been highly effective. ASSESS has been adapted to address a very wide range of decision contexts including: selection of a low level radiative waste repository (Veitch, 1997a); land use decision support for the Murray Darling Basin (Bui, 1999); assessment of the condition of hydrological catchments in the intensive land use zone of Australia (Walker and Veitch, 2001). The interface has also been adapted as a hybrid calculator incorporating knowledge-based indices and quantitative data for catchment-scale assessment of tree planting effects on the water table (Braaten, unpublished) and continental scale assessment of potential carbon sequestration responses from Australia's rangelands with changes in management (Hill et al., 2002Hill et al., , 2003). ...
... The selection of repositories for various forms of radioactive waste was the first major issue for which ASSESS was developed (Veitch and Caughley, 1993; Bowyer and Veitch, 1994; Veitch, 1995; Veitch and Bowyer, 1996; Veitch, 1997a). Here, the focus was on selection of high suitability sites, hence the genesis of the name ASSESS – A System for Selecting Suitable Sites. ...
Decision support systems (DSS) that are simple, spatial, flexible, non-deterministic and have a long track record of practical application in a policy environment have until recently been uncommon. There has been a rapid expansion in the development and description of both quantitative and soft system methods that can be applied to decision-making processes and many of these have application in the spatial domain. This paper examines the case for inclusion of new methods in spatial systems for multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) in the context of the history and application of ASSESS (A System for Selecting Suitable Sites). As a spatial implementation of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), ASSESS has been used extensively for MCDA in a policy environment, but has not previously been described in peer-reviewed literature. ASSESS provides an interface in the ArcInfo Grid GIS environment that accesses GIS functionality and enables simple linear addition and combination of data layers, quantised into rankings from 1 to 5 corresponding to suitable/good to unsuitable/bad, for the development of output scenarios that may be constructed from different user viewpoints. Results from assessment of catchment condition for the intensive land use zone of Australia are used to illustrate issues surrounding incorporation of new methods and spatially explicit operations into the simple ASSESS AHP MCDA process. The knowledge and methods base is outlined diagrammatically using AHP MCDA as the core process, and new methods and spatial approaches as adjuncts or inputs at various stages. New methods can assist with correlation of input data layers, subjective weightings, and mixing of qualitative and quantitative data. The merits of the inclusion of quantitative methods based on logical empiricism for explicit definition of input errors and uncertainty, approaches to quantisation of input data, and optimisation of outputs are contrasted with soft systems approaches that incorporate more linguistic and information theory into landscape analysis. The potential role for spatial analysis both in providing static input factor layers and in dynamic optimisation and seamless integration in the decision process are explored.
... However, simple, flexible multi-criteria shells are not readily available, particularly without a programming requirement, and with easy adaptability to any problem. The ASSESS (A System for selecting Suitable Sites; Veitch, 1997) multi-criteria interface in ArcInfo GIS has been applied widely over a number of years (Bui, 1999;Walker and Veitch, 2001;Walker et al, 2002;Hill et al., 2005a)) -most recently in analysis of tensions in Australian rangelands (Hill et al., 2005b). However, this system was limited by some of the structural constraints imposed by GIS, and by specific software dependence and limited portability. ...
Management of grazing lands has been included in land-based mechanisms for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. This paper describes a spatial system for scenario analysis of the effect of changes in grazing management on rangeland carbon balances. The system is based on identification of alternative biophysical carbon states and incorporates the effects of management changes and socio-economic and cultural barriers to changes. The management factors include grazing pressure, fire management, control or spread of woody weeds and introduction of browse shrubs. The impact of these factors may be influenced by frequency of good and poor growth years, frequency of droughts and be discounted due to social and economic barriers to adoption. The system appeared to plausibly represent the rangeland responses to management when tested for responses to climate variability and changes in stocking rate, and the impact of prescribed burning in the Tropical Woodlands. Responses are highly sensitive to the knowledge-based estimates of proportion of area in zones for each carbon state and the value of the relative carbon index for each state. A complete and ecologically sound representation of this simple model of carbon state dynamics and climate/vegetation interactions is needed to ensure that scenario analysis is useful and valid for scoping studies.
The condition of Australia's water catchments was assessed in a 2 million km² intensive land-use zone (ILZ) as part of a National Land and Water Resources Audit (the Audit). The assessment used existing biophysical data obtained from satellite imagery, digital elevation models, computed or derived values, surrogates and existing spatial data from state and national databases. The data were used to derive indicators and an index of relative catchment condition for 3718 sub-catchments and 197 basins. The spatial patterns for catchment condition were then mapped across the ILZ. The term indicator is used consistently to mean a single attribute (even if it is derived from several variables), whereas a sub-index or an index is an aggregation of scaled indicator values.
The purpose of this study was to help to inform policy development for the Australian rangelands, and provide a proof of concept for application of a multi-criteria analysis approach to assessment of competing resource use at continental scale. The study aimed to identify and locate key natural resource and agricultural production assets in the rangelands, define a number of measures of potentially threatening processes, and use a multi-criteria approach to identify areas where threatening processes, agricultural production problems, or valuable natural resources coincided. The analysis used 35 readily available, continental spatial data layers at 5-km pixel resolution ranked from 1 (low) to 5 (high) under three themed groupings: natural resource base, production base, and threatening processes. These measures were aggregated into composite indicators to define attributes such as environmental sensitivity and total grazing pressure. The composites were then compared in a two-way analysis to explore particular interactions between threatening processes such as pastoralism and mining, and the condition of production and natural resource assets. These interactions were defined as "tensions" for purposes of this analysis. Example "tensions" included the association of high grazing intensity with areas of high environmental sensitivity, indicating a risk of land degradation under adverse climatic conditions. A summary of patterns of tension was obtained by extracting area proportions of high-tension classes for selected Natural Heritage Trust Regions, which are a basis for Australian Government funding of improved environmental management. The study provides a basis for further examination of trade-offs in the use of natural assets, opportunities for improved productivity and sustainability, and social and economic implications.
Many spatial decision-making problems, such as site selection or land use allocation require the decision-maker to consider the impacts of choice-alternatives along multiple dimensions in order to choose the best alternative. The decision-making process, involving policy priorities, trade-offs, and uncertainties, can be aided by Multiple Criteria Decision making (MCDM) methods. This paper presents a framework for integrating geographical information systems (GIS) and MCDM methods. In this framework the MCDM methods are classified and matched with choice heuristics used by the decision-makers in the presence of competing alternatives and multiple evaluation criteria. Two strategies for integrating GIS with MCDM are proposed. The first strategy suggests linking GIS and MCDM techniques using a file exchange mechanism. The second strategy suggests integrating GIS and MCDM functions using a common database. The paper presents the implementation of the first strategy using PC-ARC/INFO, a file exchange module, and four different MCDM computer programs.
A primary goal of the NERC/ESRC Land Use Programme (NELUP) was to design and build a decision support system (DSS) to model rural land use and its change due to environmental and agricultural policy. The effects of policies are measured in terms of economic, ecological and hydrological parameters, with land use and land cover being the uniting factors. The DSS incorporates access to a large database and a suite of complex models. The DSS is user-friendly, produces meaningful graphics, and is almost entirely mouse-driven. This paper describes the NELUP view of policy making and DSS, the NELUP database and the DSS models and interface philosophy and design. The results of workshops, conducted with potential users of the DSS, are discussed and summarised.
Land resource inventories to determine land suitabilities have become a standard part of planning analysis at many scales. Any attempt to review, compare, evaluate, or improve upon the myriad of case studies, many only partially documented and in limited circulation, suffers from the lack of reference to a common framework. This article develops a general statement of the purpose and character of land suitability analysis, a taxonomy of existing methods for identifying homogeneous areas and rating them as to suitability for specific uses, and a comparative evaluation of these methods.
This is the first of two papers elaborating a framework for embedding urban models within GIS. This framework is based upon using the display capabilities of GIS as the user interface to the conventional modelling process, beginning with data selection and analysis, moving to model specification and calibration, and thence to prediction. In this paper, we outline how various stages in this process based on purpose-built software outside the system, are accessed and operated through the GIS. We first deal with display based on thematic maps, surfaces, graphs and linked windows, standard to any data from whatever source, be it observations, model estimates or predictions. We then describe how various datasets are selected, how the spatial system can be partitioned or aggregated, and how rudimentary exploratory spatial data analysis enables scatterplots to be associated with thematic maps. We illustrate all these functions and operations using the proprietary GIS ARC-INFO applied to population data at the tract level in the Buffalo region. In the second part of the paper, various residential location models are outlined and the full modelling framework is assembled and demonstrated.
The exploration of alternative futures is an important part of socio-economic analysis. This paper describes one approach to socio-economic modelling that is intended to support this exploration by scenario analysis. The approach involves the representation of a socio-economic system by a simulation framework which has no imposed optimization. Alternative futures are explored by changing the control variables governing the simulation framework which is a loosely coupled set of physical transformation processes, each using existing design information to represent a segment of the economy. The variables that control the processes are set by the user or, alternatively, by the user in conjunction with a model of decision processes. In this way, the user is an integral part of the system and a source of novelty. A prototype representation of the Canadian socio-economic system serves to illustrate this approach and its use.
A symbolic approach to the analysis of mixed data types found in the spatial database of a Geographical Information System is developed. Unlike statistical techniques, that are essentially based on the manipulation of numeric quantities, the method here attempts to emulate photo-interpretation by manipulating symbolic representations of photo-interpretive knowledge. This representation consists of a mixture of normal and ‘defeasible’ rules. The latter enables analysis to proceed in the face of uncertainty by making (and possibly revising) assumptions about the contents of the scene being analysed.The analysis procedure is decomposed into three stages. The first deals with the analysis of data from groups of sensors (sources) providing the same type of information, the second combines the inferences of these individual analyses and the third imposes spatial consistency constraints. This decomposition implies a structuring of the knowledge, an issue that appears essential for a knowledge-based analysis to be efficient. Examples are presented which demonstrate the system's ability to handle mixed multi-spectral and radar imagery, and images at different spatial resolutions.
The purpose of this article is to briefly examine these alternative views of DSS, and present a framework that proves valuable in reconciling them. The framework articulates and integrates major concerns of several "stakeholders" in the development of DSS: executives and profes-sionals who use them, the MIS managers who manage the process of developing and installing them, the information specialists who build and develop them, the system designers who create and assemble the technology on which they are based, and the researchers who study the DSS subject and process. This article proposes a framework to explore the nature, scope, and content of the evolving topic of Decision Support Systems (DSS). The first part of the framework considers (al three levels of technoloov __ which have been designated DSS, (b) the developmen-tal approach that is evolving for the creation of a DSS. and (c) the roles of several key types of people in the building and use of a DSS. The second part develops a descriptive model to assess the performance objec-tives and the capabilities of a DSS as viewed by three of the major participants in their continued development and use. The final section outlines several issues in the future growth and development of a DSS as a potentially valuable type of information system in organizations.
Geographical Information Systems can be used for processing spatial data to assess the risks of environmental contamination. Their use depends upon the amount and quality of available data, the models for interpolation and calculation of health risk, data processing procedures and interactivity. In this study, it is shown that interactive use of GIS is important for obtaining physically relevant results. Three forms of interactivity are distinguished: interactivity by means of user interfacing, interactivity requiring additional information outside GIS and interactivity when changing the use of GIS. Three stages in which interaction with GIS are crucial can be distinguished: application of geostatistics, choice of appropriate models, and decision making. This study focuses on three cases in The Netherlands dealing with soil contamination and soil stress analysis and with implications for risk assessment in which interactivity within GIS is analysed. Emphasis is given to contour volumes of polluted soil, to combine GIS with deterministic models and to apply land use scenarios. Finally, there is a discussion of how some forms of interactivity could be replaced by expert systems.
Traditional natural resource management policy has largely focused on implementing prescriptive solutions to maximize a production function. The fundamental assumptions of this approach were: (1) that ecosystems behaved in a linear, deterministic manner; (2) that there was general community agreement on the value of different ecosystem services; and (3) that land managers would accept and adopt the recommended technology. The result has generally been an unpredictable performance by ecosystems, conflicting expectations among users, and low adoption rates for the outputs of research and development (R&D). We propose that an approach that integrates the fundamentals of nonequilibrium ecology and "soft" systems methodologies to define options, make management decision recommendations, and implement programs will result in improved predictability of ecosystem response, more realistic expectations on the part of users of ecosystem services, and better uptake of technology by land managers.
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