La gestión de conflictos en áreas protegidas y el análisis multi-criterio para la toma de decisiones

Autores:

João Carlos Azevedo (Instituto Politecnico de Braganza), Pascual Fernandez (Universidad Rey Juan Carlos), Mónica De Castro-Pardo. (Universidad Complutense de Madrid).

Special Issue in Land journal  https://doi.org/10.3390/land10101008 (ISSN 2073-445X, IF 3.395, CiteScore 3.0).

Publicación en junio 2021. Gestión de conflictos con el agua y medioambiente

La gestión de las áreas protegidas es particularmente compleja debido al gran número y diversidad de grupos con intereses en conflicto. Además, el entramado formado por diferentes niveles de administraciones y gobiernos involucrados en la gestión de un mismo espacio protegido dificulta la gobernanza de los sitios gestionados por varias comunidades autónomas o aquellos situados en áreas transfronterizas. En este contexto, el análisis multi-criterio para la toma de decisiones (Multiple Criteria Decision Making-MCDM) resulta particularmente adecuado para identificar soluciones conjuntas lo más consensuadas posibles, aportando transparencia y rigor a las políticas públicas. En esta comunicación se presentan tres casos de estudio en dos espacios protegidos en España y en otro transfronterizo luso-español. En el primer caso de estudio se utilizó una técnica outranking, PROMETHEE II, en el Parque Natural de la Albufera (Valencia) para identificar la categoría internacional de protección con mayor consenso entre los grupos de interés. En el segundo caso de estudio se aplicó un Análisis de Jerarquías Analíticas, un modelo de programación por metas y el método de Monte-Carlo para identificar la prioridad de 37 objetivos de gestión en una Reserva de la Biosfera Transfronteriza hispano-portuguesa: Meseta Ibérica. El tercer caso de estudio se realizó en el Parque Nacional de Ordesa y Monte Perdido (Huesca) y se utilizaron varias técnicas de análisis multi-criterio para priorizar los servicios de los ecosistemas considerando, de manera conjunta, su vulnerabilidad e importancia relativa. Estos ejemplos muestran la utilidad de las técnicas de análisis multi-criterio para mejorar la gobernanza en sitios protegidos en los que la toma de decisiones resulta especialmente complicada.

An initial assessment of water security in Europe using a DEA approach

Sustainable Technology and Entrepreneurship
January–April 2022, Volume: 1. Issue 1
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stae.2022.100002

 

The global freshwater crisis has prompted the development of innovative methods to assess the sustainability of water resources around the world. In the last decade, the concept of water sustainability has evolved, giving rise to a more advanced measure of societies’ capacity to safeguard water resources; namely, water security. In this paper, we calculate a composite index to assess water security through the application of a DEA approach. The proposed model is used to aggregate nine indicators relating to the four dimensions of water security: state of the water environment; human health and wellbeing; sustainability of livelihoods; and the stability, functions and responsibility of societies. The model was applied to 15 European countries.

Benchmarking results of the analysed countries show that Denmark, the United Kingdom and Finland hold the best positions in the ranking. The findings thus indicate that these countries show excellent performance in water security relative to the other countries under study.

Dealing with Water Conflicts: A Comprehensive Review of MCDM Approaches to Manage Freshwater Ecosystem Services

Land
May 2021  –  Volume: 10. Issue: 5 – 469
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/land10050469

This paper presents a comprehensive review of the application of Multiple-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) approaches exclusively to water-related freshwater ecosystem services. MCDM analysis has been useful in solving conflicts and it works well in this framework, given the serious conflicts historically associated with water use and the protection of freshwater ecosystems around the world. In this study, we present a review of 150 papers that proposed the use of MCDM-based methods for the social, economic, or ecological planning and management of water ecosystem services over the period 2000–2020. The analysis accounts for six elements: ecosystem service type, method, participation, biogeographical realm, waterbody type, and problem to solve. A Chi-square test was used to identify dependence between these elements. Studies involving the participation of stakeholder groups adopted an integrated approach to analysing sustainable water management, considering provisioning, regulating, and cultural services. However, such studies have been in decline since 2015, in favour of non-participatory studies that were strictly focused on ecological and provisioning issues. Although this reflects greater concern for the health of freshwater ecosystems, it is a long way removed from the essence of ecosystem services, which entails an integrated approach to the interrelationships between hydrology, landscapes, ecology, and humans.