Dr Leanne Scott

Room: S&C/3.025

Research

Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) ; Problem Structuring Methods; Decision Analysis

Projects

Depending on their inclination, students can tackle projects of an applied or theoretical nature in the following fields of interest:

The field of MCDA encompasses a variety of methods to support the management of processes with multiple (often conflicting and multi-dimensional) goals or objectives. These methods have particular application in management of scarce resources and in supporting decisions which have profound consequences for multiple stakeholders. Different methods can be broadly grouped into those which use value functions; those which use a form of goal programming; and those which are based on notions of satisfaction/ aspiration. Methods also vary in the degree to which they involve stakeholders and the levels of information they require from them.

The field of Problem Structuring is also referred to as "Soft Operational Research" and developed in response to the idea that most problems do not come as neatly packaged entities that can be solved in separation from the context in which they originate. An early operational researcher, Russ Ackoff, famously referred to what confronts many operational researchers as a "mess", rather than a problem. Problem Structuring engages stakeholders in ensuring that the problem to which we apply our minds and techniques, is in fact the right problem.

The interface between MCDA and PS and its application in issues concerning environmental management and its associated socio-economic concerns is an area of particular interest of mine.

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