Decision analysis

Abstract

This chapter is devoted to some of the basic elements of decision analysis, a subject that has its roots firmly established in the area of management science, but now enjoys a much wider application. The present article, which is not intended as an exhaustive discussion paper, aims to introduce basic terminology and to illustrate some of the techniques that can be appliedto situations in fire protection engineering, oneofthe many areas of application. The growth in application can be attributed to the significant developmentsthat have taken place within information technology, particularly with regard to the ready availability ofser-friendly decision support software. Practitioners interested in particularaspects of the subject and in software will find appropriate references listed in context. Thereader should be aware at the outset that decision analysis is more general than risk analysis, which, in terms of fire protection, has its own extensive and highly specialized literature�see, for example, Castino and Harmathy [1], Gretener [2], Hall [3], Hirschler [4], Watts [5, 6].