Supporting decisions about the introduction of genetically modified crops

Genetically modified (GM) crops have become a real option in modern agriculture. They offer advantages for agricultural production, but they also raise concerns about their ecological and economic impacts. Decisions about GM crops are complex and call for decision support. This paper presents an application of qualitative multi-attribute modeling methodology DEX to the development of model-based decision support systems in two European research projects, ECOGEN and SIGMEA. Three main multi-attribute models were developed for the assessment of GM-crop impacts in terms of (1) economy and ecology, (2) soil quality, and (3) co-existence. All these models were developed in collaboration of domain experts and decision analysts using the software tool DEXi. In the paper, we describe the applied methodology and outline the three models, their implementation and some results of their application. In particular, we discuss our lessons learned and highlight the strong and weak points of this approach.