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Strategic decision making for improved environmental security: Coalitions and attitudes

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Abstract

The utilization of decision support systems which are flexible enough to handle information about cooperative behavior and stakeholder attitudes are useful for analyzing complex social conflicts. One such conflict which arose from the redevelopment of a private brownfield property in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada is examined using such a decision support tool. Specifically, a formal model referred to as COAT which allows for the examination of conflicts with both coalition and attitude properties is rigorously defined and then implemented within the framework of the Graph Model for Conflict Resolution in order that insights may be gained on how the decision makers can reach win-win resolutions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

    Sean Bernath Walker

  2. Department of Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

    Keith W. Hipel

  3. Department of Decision and Value Science, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan

    Takehiro Inohara

Authors
  1. Sean Bernath Walker
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  2. Keith W. Hipel
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  3. Takehiro Inohara
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sean Bernath Walker.

Additional information

Sean Bernath Walker is a doctoral student of Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He received his BASc in Chemical Engineering and his MASc in Systems Design Engineering both from the University of Waterloo. His current research interests are coalitions, attitudes and their applications to environmental policy and conflict.

Keith W. Hipel is University Professor of Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo, where he is Coordinator of the Conflict Analysis Group. He is Senior Fellow with the Centre for International Governance Innovation and recently completed a two-year term as Vice President of the Academy of Sciences, which is part of the Royal Society of Canada. His major research interests are the development of conflict resolution, multiple objective decision making and time series analysis techniques from a systems design engineering perspective with application to water resources management, hydrology, environmental engineering and sustainable development. He received his Bachelor’s and PhD degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Waterloo in 1970 and 1975, respectively, and his Master’s degree in Systems Design from Waterloo in 1972. Dr. Hipel is Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC), Canadian Academy of Engineering (FCAE), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (FIEEE), International Council on Systems Engineering (FINCOSE), Engineering Institute of Canada (FEIC), and the American Water Resources Association (FAWRA). He is also a recipient of the Norbert Wiener Award from the IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics (SMC) Society, and Docteur Honoris Causa from École Centrale de Lille.

Takehiro Inohara received his B.S. (Mathematics, 1992), M.S. (Systems Science, 1994) and PhD (Systems Science, 1997), all from the Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech), Tokyo, Japan. He is currently an Associate Professor in Department of Value and Decision Science (VALDES), Tokyo Tech. His research interests are in the fields of conflict resolution, decision making, consensus building, and social network theory. He is a reviewer of Mathematical Reviews, and the leader of the International Program on Consensus Building (IPCOB) at Tokyo Tech. In 2003, Professor Inohara received “Tokyo Tech Award for Challenging Research” from Tokyo Tech, and in 2005, “The Young Scientist’s Prize” from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in Japan.

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Bernath Walker, S., Hipel, K.W. & Inohara, T. Strategic decision making for improved environmental security: Coalitions and attitudes. J. Syst. Sci. Syst. Eng. 18, 461–476 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11518-009-5119-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11518-009-5119-9

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