ABSTRACT
In our private and professional lives, decisions must often be made, and decisionmaking tools are commonly used in the quantitative sciences. This chapter gives an introduction to the major methods and concepts of this very important scientific field.
Decision making is the science of choice. Selecting the best technology for a particular application, developing flood protection alternatives, and optimizing the operation of a reservoir are all problems of choice. The first element of any decisionmaking problem is the decision maker. For a particular problem, we might have a single person who is responsible for deciding what to do, or several people or organizations may be involved in the decision-making process. In the first case, we have only one decision maker; in the second case, multiple decision makers. When more than one decision maker is present, then they might have different priorities, objectives, and desires, thus no decision outcome is likely to satisfy every decision maker. In such cases, a collective decision has to be made, and the outcome depends on how the different decision makers take the interests of others into account. In other words, the outcome depends on their willingness to cooperate with each other.
