ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses computer program available at the Corps’ Waterways Experiment Station which helps planners evaluate their planning alternatives. Planners and publics identify only a few highly aggregated variables such as flood protection, areas of particular habitats, species diversity, aesthetics, water-based recreation capacity, water quality, water supply, and cultural resources. Planners estimate the feasible range for each resource during the study’s period of analysis given a set of alternatives, planners and others identify the minimum level and the maximum level possible for each resource considering all events or interventions that might imaginably take place in the study area. Use of the sensitivity analysis program helps planners determine what information to include in documents in order to be responsive to decision makers’ needs. Sensitivity analysis gives planners a sound indication of the basic issues about which all participants should be fully aware. And it prepares them to downplay tangential topics without being closed to diverse viewpoints.
