Department Environmental Social Sciences
ValueDecisions, a web app to support decisions with conflicting objectives, multiple stakeholders and uncertainty
What is ValueDecisions for?
The ValueDecisions web app is a tool to support you in finding solutions for complex decision problems with multiple criteria: where making a good choice is not easily possible simply by gut feeling and common sense. Use ValueDecisions to explore decision problems from any field: environmental management, public policy, urban planning, technical engineering, medicine, business administration, or personal choices. ValueDecisions is especially useful for decisions with high uncertainty that affect many stakeholders with conflicting interests.
Who should use ValueDecisions?
We designed ValueDecisions for specialists who know the basics of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). If you know the basics, it allows you to analyze simple to highly complex decision problems in a very straightforward manner. ValueDecisions provides an user-friendly interface for a sophisticated analysis of a difficult decision problem.
What exactly is ValueDecisions?
The ValueDecisions app is an open-source software, developed at Eawag, to calculate the results of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). It is based on Multi-Attribute Value Theory (MAVT).
The ValueDecisions app allows you to specify data for different decision options, different objectives (and attributes), and different stakeholders. All you need to upload are two Excel sheets. One contains the predictions of consequences of decision options (and their uncertainty estimates, if available). The other contains stakeholder preference data, if available, namely the weights, single-attribute value functions, and the MCDA aggregation model.
The ValueDecisions app is designed to deal with the inherent uncertainty of complex (environmental) decisions. The uncertainty of the predictions (i.e., how each option performs) is modelled with Monte Carlo simulation, based on the uncertainty distributions entered in the predictions Excel sheet. The uncertainty of the stakeholder’s preferences can be explored with various sensitivity analyses (of the weights, shape of single-attribute value functions, and aggregation model). The ValueDecisions app visualizes the results with graphs and tables. The results can be downloaded directly, or as Word report.
How to cite ValueDecisions
If you use the ValueDecisions app, please cite it as follows:
Haag, Fridolin; Aubert, Alice. H.; Lienert, Judit (2022) ValueDecisions, a web app to support decisions with conflicting objectives, multiple stakeholders and uncertainty. Environmental Modelling and Software: 105361. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2022.105361 Eawag, Switzerland. www.eawag.ch/en/DA/ValueDecisions
Access
For more information, including a simple example, visit ValueDecisions!
Directly access the ValueDecisions app at:
https://eawag.shinyapps.io/ValueDecisions
Access the Git repository for the development version and R package: https://gitlab.switch.ch/DecisionAnalysis/ValueDecisions
ERIC open: Supplementary material, data, and source code of the ValueDecisions app. Access the Eawag Research Data Institutional Collection: https://doi.org/10.25678/00048S
Publications
Lienert, J. (2022) App helps with difficult decisions (App hilft bei schwierigen Entscheiden). Interview by Barbara Vonarburg with Judit Lienert, Eawag News, April 2022.
MCDA case studies using ValueDecisions (examples)
Beutler, P, Larsen, T. A., Maurer, M., Staufer, P., Lienert, J. (2024) A participatory multi-criteria decision analysis framework reveals transition potential towards non‐grid wastewater management. Journal of Environmental Management 367: 121962. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.121962
Maurer, B., Lienert, J., Cook, Lauren M. (2023) Comparing PV-green and PV-cool roofs to diverse rooftop options using decision analysis. Building and Environment 245: 110922. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2023.110922
Lienert, J., Andersson, J. C. M., Hofmann, D., Silva Pinto, F., Kuller, M. (2022) The role of multi-criteria decision analysis in a transdisciplinary process: co-developing a flood forecasting system in western Africa. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 26(11): 2899-2922. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-2899-2022
Haag, F., Aubert, A. H., Lienert, J. (2022) ValueDecisions, a web app to support decisions with conflicting objectives, multiple stakeholders, and uncertainty. Environmental Modelling and Software 150: 105361. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2022.105361
