MULBO: Model framework for multicriteria landscape assessment and optimisation. A support system for spatial land use decisions

Abstract

The model framework MULBO (Multicriteria Landscape Assessment and Optimisation) is a spatially explicit decision support method on the basis of risk evaluations for landscape functions. Its principal purpose is the establishment of optimal land use patterns as scenarios, which are balanced compromises between conflicting goals for the reduction of assessed risks. A user manual for MULBO has been developed which contains the individual assessment tools, the landscape optimisation method LNOPT 2.0, a multiplicity of applications, as well as information about data and techniques. After an introductory discussion of fundamentals for spatial decision-making, the methods and contents of MULBO are presented and discussed on basis of applications in a rural area in the southern part of Saxony-Anhalt (Germany). An applied project converts the scenario results recently into possible practices.