Decision support methods for resolving land-use conflicts

There is a need for innovative decision making techniques that enhance decision making in and adjacent to wildlife habitat. We contend that a knowledge of preferences is an essential ingredient to more effective decision making. Three distinct analytical methods were used to elicit preferences for wolves in the Alberta Rocky Mountains: A Geographic Information System (GIS) was used to develop a predictive habitat use model; a knowledge acquisition program, KSSO, was used to elicit expert knowledge about wolf habitat preferences, to integrate the previous statistically derived preferences and to generate ''if-then'' rules for use in an expert system; a process of paired comparison was conducted in a round table format producing a set of wolf habitat criteria and matrices. We discuss the developmental aspects of each technique and contrast their strengths as resource management tools. We concluded that each technique enhances the decision making process by focusing decision makers, simplifying the system under analysis and because of their compatibility with GIS, which can provide spatially explicit solution sets. Moreover, we observed that each technique is complementary in its function, which increases the tools available to resource managers that enrich their understanding of the natural world.