MCE-RISK: integrating multicriteria evaluation and GIS for risk decision-making in natural hazards

During the past two decades there have been a wide range of applications for decision-making linking multicriteria evaluation (MCE) and geographic information systems (GIS). However, limited literature reports the development of MCE-GIS software, and the comparison of various MCE-GIS approaches. This paper introduces an MCE-GIS program called MCE-RISK for risk-based decision-making. It consists of a series of modules for data standardisation, weighting, MCE-GIS methods, and sensitivity analysis. The program incorporates different MCE-GIS methods, including weighted linear combination (WLC), the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS), and compromise programming (CP), enabling comparisons between different methods for the same decision problem to be made. An example of decision-making for determining priority areas for a bushfire hazard reduction burning is examined. After implementing the alternative MCE-GIS methods, and comparing final outputs and the computational difficulty involved in the analysis, WLC is recommended. Some caveats on using MCE-GIS methods are also discussed. Although the development of MCE-RISK and its application reported in this paper are specific to risk-based decision-making in natural hazards, the program can be used for other environmental decision applications, such as environmental impact assessment and land-use planning.