The Role of Decision Models in the Evaluation of Competing Environmental Health Alternatives

This paper discusses the problems faced by the Solid Waste Management Office (formerly the Bureau of Solid Waste Management) in evaluating competing environmental health alternatives, given a set of decision criteria. The concepts of scoring models are reviewed. Techniques for the implementation of a linear scoring model are critically examined; and a new method, termed DARE, is discussed as it is presently applied in this Office. The DARE method is a rational, orderly procedure that minimizes the number of decisions required of the decisionmaker.