Using preference information in developing alternative forest plans

The development of new alternative plans based on applying multicriteria decision making (MCDM) techniques in discrete choice situations has received little attention in the context of forest planning. This article proposes a two-stage approach to be applied in participatory decision-making situations in which a specific number of initial alternatives are evaluated by the decision makers (DMs) using MCDM analysis. The preference information, obtained from these analyses in the form of target values, is then used for generating still more efficient forest plans. This paper concentrates on the latter stage and tests nine different goal programming (GP) formulations. This paper uses the formulas and preference information obtained from a case study of three forest owners to generate new forest plans. Among the tested techniques, formulas with a penalty function provided the most appropriate plans. These GP formulations could enhance the participatory planning processes in which a discrete number of alternatives are evaluated. With further development, this process could be applied to a variety of forest ownership types and could be a useful tool in supporting group decision making. This proposed approach could facilitate an increase in the DMs' satisfaction and an increased commitment towards the derived decision.