MANY people find it hard even to choose what breakfast cereal to buy.

So imagine the difficulty of making a decision that could affect hundreds of people’s lives, such as deciding where roads will run or how natural resources are managed.

Dr David Annandale and Mr Ross Lantzke from the School of Environmental Science at Murdoch University are tackling this issue with a decision-making tool called Multi-Criteria Analysis.

This technique provides decision-makers with a rigorous analysis of alternatives, informed by active public involvement.

Dr Annandale and Mr Lantzke are one of only two university groups in Australia to be undertaking research with this technique and they believe it has the potential to be a very powerful conflict resolution tool.

“Many public authorities use the DAD (Decide, Announce, Defend) process to make public decisions. That is, decisions are made and then presented to the public for comment. This approach does not allow people to question the decision-making process, or the alternatives analysed behind closed doors by the authorities,” said Dr Annandale.

“With Multi-Criteria Analysis, interested parties can help define the alternatives, list the criteria to be used to compare the alternatives, and provide an input as to how important these criteria might be to them as individuals, or interest groups.

“In our experience, when the public are involved in the process of making decisions, they invariably find it difficult to disagree with the outcomes.”

Dr Annandale and Mr Lantzke are currently writing a manual to help local authorities around Australia use this technique for waste management decisions, especially in the siting of facilities such as landfills and incinerators.

The project, which will be completed by mid-2001, is funded by the Waste Management and Recycling Fund.