Assessing multi-criteria approaches with environmental, economic and social attributes, weights and procedures: A case study in the Pampas, Argentina

Los objetivos del presente estudio fueron analizar y comparar diferentes criterios en términos de identificación de conflictos entre la ecología y la economía, para evaluar alternativas de manejo del uso de la tierra y analizar la sensibilidad de diferentes decisiones luego de usar la información disponible para las regiones marginales de la Pampa Argentina. Así, se desarrollaron tres modelos de decisión multi-criterios y se aplicaron para evaluar impactos ambiental, económico y social, considerando el uso de la tierra y el agua. Los resultados muestran un alto nivel de conflicto entre criterios ecológicos, económicos y sociales, derivados de aspectos basados en cuestiones de mercado. También se observa que es posible lograr un alto nivel de ganancia económica, ambiental y social con inversión mixta (pública y privada.). Las estrategias de manejo que satisfacen logros conjuntos incluyen prácticas a tres escalas (parcela, campo y región). Los modelos incluyen prácticas de conservación del suelo y agua y siembra directa a nivel de parcela; el cultivo de maíz en una parte por cada dos de soja y localizando forestación en zonas bajas a nivel de campo, y técnicas basadas en bio-ingeniería en cursos de agua, pastos y bosques en las zonas ribereñas a nivel de región.

J.M. Cisneros, J.B. Grau, J.M. Antón, J.D. de Prada, A. Cantero, A.J. Degioanni

Agricultural Water Management, 98: 1545– 1556 (2011)

 

Soil erosion control is a major issue in agriculture. The no till system of soybean production has been widely adopted; however, soil erosion may increase due to pasture and forestry land convertion to cropland in the marginal Pampas, Argentina. The aim of this paper is to assess the conflicts and trade-off among environmental, economic and social interests by using three continuous multi-criteria approaches and a set of different weights. Different land uses, crops, pastures, forestry and soil and water conservation practices at the basin scale in the marginalPampas were assessed. The basin (423 km2) was discretised into 176 sub-basins to focus the management strategy on 5th and 6th order streams. Minimum basic information was obtained using intensive field observations and satellite images. The basin hydrology, soil erosion, sediment delivery and vegetated filter strip models and GIS were used to quantify the technical coefficients. Thirteen decision factors and six criteria (peak run-off, annual erosion, sediment, investment, gross margin and employment) were used in the optimisation trials. Weighted goal programming, lexicographic goal programming, compromise programming and a sensitivity analysis of weights were performed. The results showed a high impact of soil and water management practices on the environmental factors and a strong conflict between environmental and economic interests. The three multi-criteria approaches also showed that it is possible to obtain a good level of goal achievement with different plans. These plans should include: soil conservation practices; crop rotation (of a 2:1 soybean-to-corn ratio); gully and channel erosion control; regulation ponds; and pasture and agro-forestry areas. This goal achievement is mainly limited by public and private investment. Sensitivity analysis of the decisionmaker weights shows differences among the values achieved by the criteria and their trade-off. Thus, the weight value of each criterium should be supported by the negotiation–consensus process.