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Item Exploration and Visualization of Patterns Underlying Multistakeholder Preferences in Watershed Conservation Decisions Generated by an Interactive Genetic Algorithm(Wiley, 2021-05) Piemonti, Adriana Debora; Guizani, Mariam; Babbar-Sebens, Meghna; Zhang, Eugene; Mukhopadhyay, Snehasis; Computer and Information Science, School of ScienceIn multiple watershed planning and design problems, such as conservation planning, quantitative estimates of costs, and environmental benefits of proposed conservation decisions may not be the only criteria that influence stakeholders' preferences for those decisions. Their preferences may also be influenced by the conservation decision itself—specifically, the type of practice, where it is being proposed, existing biases, and previous experiences with the practice. While human-in-the-loop type search techniques, such as Interactive Genetic Algorithms (IGA), provide opportunities for stakeholders to incorporate their preferences in the design of alternatives, examination of user-preferred conservation design alternatives for patterns in Decision Space can provide insights into which local decisions have higher or lower agreement among stakeholders. In this paper, we explore and compare spatial patterns in conservation decisions (specifically involving cover crops and filter strips) within design alternatives generated by IGA and noninteractive GA. Methods for comparing patterns include nonvisual as well as visualization approaches, including a novel visual analytics technique. Results for the study site show that user-preferred designs generated by all participants had strong bias for cover crops in a majority (50%–83%) of the subbasins. Further, exploration with heat maps visualization indicate that IGA-based search yielded very different spatial patterns of user-preferred decisions in subbasins in comparison to decisions within design alternatives that were generated without the human-in-the-loop. Finally, the proposed coincident-nodes, multiedge graph visualization was helpful in visualizing disagreement among participants in local subbasin scale decisions, and for visualizing spatial patterns in local subbasin scale costs and benefits.Item Interactive Watershed Optimization in the Presence of Spatially-varying and Uncertain Stakeholder Preferences(IEEE, 2020-09) Babbar Sebens, Meghna; Cannady Shultz, Kenneth R.; Mukhopadhyay, Snehasis; Computer and Information Science, School of ScienceWatershed planning over a geographic area is a difficult task primarily due to the presence of large number of stakeholders and decision makers whose intrinsic conflicting and/or subjective preferences often lead to uncertainty in perceived fitness of planning decisions. Deciding which watershed strategy should be implemented at what location requires a participatory approach to design and decision making, if adoption of landscape decisions is critical to success. Analytical participatory design (APD) approaches aim to enable farmers, environmentalists, government agencies, and other stakeholders to visualize the landscape, explore and design competitive scenarios of implementing certain management practices on the landscape. Since these approaches improve decision makers' awareness of opportunities and constraints in the co-existing physical and human systems, it is hypothesized that they can be used to generate acceptable decisions that are robust to uncertainties in stakeholder preferences. An APD method based on Interactive optimization is described in this paper and tested for design of wetlands in a study watershed site (Eagle Creek Watershed) in the state of Indiana. The method is then used to test research hypothesis by involving multiple virtual stakeholders as surrogates to diverse human users and their preferences. The results indicate that, while, as expected, the interactive optimization approach results in lower values of the financial and environmental objective criteria (which are being traded off against users' diverse subjective personal criteria), it also results in a relatively high degree of user consensus, indicating high likelihood of adoption of the generated solutions by the stakeholders.Item A web-based software tool for participatory optimization of conservation practices in watersheds(Elsevier, 2015-07) Babbar-Sebens, Meghna; Mukhopadhyay, Snehasis; Singh, Vidya Bhushan; Piemonti, Adriana Debora; Department of Computer & Information Science, School of ScienceWRESTORE (Watershed Restoration Using Spatio-Temporal Optimization of Resources) is a web-based, participatory planning tool that can be used to engage with watershed stakeholder communities, and involve them in using science-based, human-guided, interactive simulation–optimization methods for designing potential conservation practices on their landscape. The underlying optimization algorithms, process simulation models, and interfaces allow users to not only spatially optimize the locations and types of new conservation practices based on quantifiable goals estimated by the dynamic simulation models, but also to include their personal subjective and/or unquantifiable criteria in the location and design of these practices. In this paper, we describe the software, interfaces, and architecture of WRESTORE, provide scenarios for implementing the WRESTORE tool in a watershed community's planning process, and discuss considerations for future developments.