Water expertise by Finnish Environment Institute
Decision support services for water and land-use planning
Do you want to bring clarity to complex decisions through structured decision support, participatory planning and economic valuation? We help authorities, planners and other organisations compare alternatives, understand trade-offs and build well-founded solutions together with stakeholders.
Turning complex trade-offs into transparent decisions
Water and land-use decisions often involve several objectives, stakeholders and possible solutions. Ecological, social and economic goals may point in different directions, while resources for action are limited.
Finnish Environment Institute helps you structure these decisions and make their consequences easier to understand. We combine Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), participatory planning, economic valuation and spatial analysis to compare alternatives and bring different forms of knowledge into the decision-making process.
Our expertise can support needs ranging from watershed visions and watercourse regulation to catchment and land-use planning, water supply, ecosystem service assessments and environmental impact assessments.
Services we provide
Our decision-support services can be adapted to different planning and water-management situations. We help you clarify objectives, compare options and understand their ecological, social and economic implications.
Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis
Participatory planning and stakeholder processes
Spatial decision support
Economic valuation
Cost-effectiveness and benefit-cost analysis
Training in structured decision-making
References
Finnish Environment Institute has applied decision-support and economic valuation methods in water management, land-use planning, restoration and infrastructure assessment. The examples below illustrate different ways these methods can support structured and participatory decision-making.
Sustainable regulation of lakes and reservoirs in Finland
Since 1990, we have applied Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis in approximately 20 projects together with Economic Development Centres to support the development of sustainable regulation practices for major Finnish lakes and reservoirs.
The work used decision analysis as a “learning by analysing” approach: stakeholders identified objectives and evaluated the ecological, social and economic impacts of alternatives. Stated-preference methods were also used to quantify benefits in collaboration with regional stakeholders.
Oulujoki River Basin watershed vision
From 2021 to 2024, Finnish Environment Institute worked with stakeholders to develop a watershed vision for the Oulujoki River Basin.
The structured participatory process helped develop recommendations for measures while considering different uses of the watershed and environmental objectives.
River Kymijoki watercourse regulation
From 2024 to 2026, Finnish Environment Institute worked on the development and systematic assessment of regulation options for the River Kymijoki watercourse.
The work examined the alternatives from different perspectives to support a more structured comparison of regulation choices.
Frequently asked questions
Decision-support assignments can differ considerably in their objectives, participants and available information. These questions explain some of the ways our expertise can be used.
When is Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis useful?
MCDA is particularly useful when a decision involves several objectives, alternatives or stakeholder perspectives that cannot be reduced to a single measure. It can help structure the problem, make trade-offs explicit and compare the consequences of different alternatives systematically.
Can you involve stakeholders in the decision-making process?
Yes. Participatory planning is an important part of our decision-support work. We can design structured processes in which stakeholders help identify objectives, develop or assess alternatives and examine their impacts from different perspectives.
Can economic valuation be combined with other decision-support methods?
Yes. Economic valuation can complement Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis and participatory planning by expressing environmental benefits in economic terms where this is appropriate. The methods can be used together to provide different types of decision-relevant information.
What kinds of decisions can these services support?
Our experience includes watercourse regulation, watershed and catchment planning, water supply, land-use planning, habitat restoration, ecosystem service assessments, environmental impact assessment and the comparison of infrastructure impacts.
Do you provide training as well as project-based support?
Yes. We provide training courses in structured decision-making and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis in addition to applying these methods in planning and assessment projects.
Ready to make a complex decision clearer?
If you are comparing alternatives, balancing competing objectives or planning a participatory decision process, our experts can help you choose an appropriate approach and turn diverse information into practical decision support.