Moscow, Russia: Computing Centre RAS, 2001, 240 pages.
Book is in English.
Abstract The book is a shortened and updated translation into English of the book "Feasible Goals Method. Mathematical Foundations and Environmental Applications" (Edwin Mellen Press: Lewiston, NY USA, 1999, 400 pp., in Russian). It is devoted to the graphic computer-based approach, FEASIBLE GOALS METHOD (FGM) that helps to find preferred decisions from an infinite number of feasible decision alternatives. The main feature of the FGM is provided by visualization of the variety of feasible criterion vectors, which can be considered as the variety of feasible goals, i.e. such goals that may be a result of feasible decisions. The display of the variety of feasible criterion vectors is carried out on-line with the help of the INTERACTIVE ANIMATED DECISION MAPS (IDM) software. The FGM combines ideas of both goal approach and multiple criteria decision theory: user can identify a preferred feasible goal on the efficiency frontier directly on display.
Applications of the FGM described in the book are related to environmental decision problems. Illustrative applications include searching for strategies of sea dumping of sluges in the Lower bight of the New York City, of agricultural development in a small region in the Netherlands, of long-time national economy growth taking environmental issues into account, of international atmosphere pollution abatement and of smart response to global climate change. Real-life applications are related to decision and negotiation support systems that include searching for efficient and effective water quality plans in large river basins.
Mathematical foundation of the FGM, which consists in explicit approximation of the variety of the feasible goals, is described in a simplified form. Current and future applications of the FGM in computer networks are outlined. Since the FGM/IDM technique provides decision information in a colorful graphic form and can be assessed by any computer-literate person, it can be used in the framework of Internet resources, which help to implement new democratic paradigm of environmental decision making.
The book is recommended for the broad audience of computer-literate people interested in application of visualization and other elements of the new information technology in public, especially environmental decision problems.
CONTENTS:
Introduction.
1. Introduction of the FGM.
2. Illustrative applications.
3. Real-life applications of the FGM/IDM technique.
4. Computational algorithms of the FGM.
Conclusion: on a new Internet-based paradigm of environmental decision making.
Computing Centre of Russian Academy of Sciences
Softbound, ISBN 5-201-09772-3, July 2001, 240 pp.