Decision Making in a Multiple-use Approach to the Reclamation of Strip-mined Lands

Abstract

With the advent of ever -increasing energy needs, large-scale surface mining has gained new impetus, and there is much concern about reclaiming the mine spoils to bring about beneficial land uses. This paper presents a decision making algorithm labeled PROTRADE, and a case study of the Black Mesa region in Northern Arizona. PROTRADE considers a set of objective functions, a set of physical constraints, articulates the preferences of the decision maker in a progressive manner, and generates a set of alternative solutions. The decision maker is then able to trade level of achievement, for each objective function, against the probability of achieving that level.