This article demonstrates an approach to Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis that compares non-monetary ecosystem service (ES) outcomes for environmental decision making. ES outcomes are often inadequately defined and characterized by imprecision and uncertainty. Outranking methods enrich our understanding of the imperfect knowledge of ES outcomes by allowing decision makers to closely examine and apply preference measures to relationships among the outcomes. We explain the methodological assumptions related to the PROMETHEE methods (Preference Ranking Organization METHod for Enrichment Evaluation), and apply them to a wetland restoration planning study in Rhode Island, USA. In the study, we partnered with a watershed management organization to evaluate four wetland restoration alternatives for their abilities to supply five ES: flood water regulation, scenic landscapes, learning opportunities, recreation, and birds. Twenty-two benefit indicators were identified for the ES as well as one indicator for social equity and one indicator for reliability of ES provision. We developed preference functions to characterize the strength of evidence across estimated indicator values between pairs of alternatives. We ranked the alternatives based on these preferences and weights on ES relevant to different planning contexts. We discuss successes and challenges of implementing PROMETHEE, including feedback from our partners who utilized the methods.

本文演示了一种多标准决策分析方法，该方法比较环境决策的非货币生态系统服务 (ES) 结果。 ES 结果通常定义不充分，并且具有不精确性和不确定性。 Outranking 方法允许决策者仔细检查结果之间的关系并将其应用于偏好测量，从而丰富了我们对 ES 结果的不完善知识的理解。我们解释了与 PROMETHEE 方法（富集评估的偏好排名组织方法）相关的方法假设，并将其应用于美国罗德岛州的湿地恢复规划研究。在这项研究中，我们与流域管理组织合作，评估了四种湿地恢复替代方案提供五种 ES 的能力：洪水调节、风景名胜、学习机会、娱乐和鸟类。确定了 ES 的 22 项福利指标、1 项社会公平指标和 1 项 ES 提供可靠性指标。我们开发了偏好函数来表征替代方案对之间估计指标值的证据强度。我们根据这些偏好和与不同规划环境相关的 ES 权重对备选方案进行了排名。我们讨论实施 PROMETHEE 的成功和挑战，包括使用这些方法的合作伙伴的反馈。