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BOA (Balance of Acceptability)

BOA for assisting policy and decision makers in comparing scenarios

BOA is a user-friendly software tool to assist scientists and decision makers in performing scenario acceptability assessment.

Choosing between different scenarios commonly requires decision making based on multiple criteria. For example finding the most sustainable agricultural production system requires evaluation of many indicators in fields as diverse as environment, animal welfare and economics. The BOA software tool allows for

  1. grouping indicators in a hierarchy
  2. defining the acceptability of indicator values (unacceptable, reasonable and desirable values)
  3. defining the relative importance of indicators
  4. combining the individual indicator’s acceptabilities using various degrees of compromising

The result is a final acceptability score for each of the investigated scenarios. In addition, also the acceptability score of each underlying dimension is presented.

The software tool contains a module to study the comparison of scenarios in the bivariate case, which allows to get familiar with the concepts behind the balancing of indicators. All results can be saved in a project file for future use.

The BOA methodology is fully described in a peer-reviewed paper (see link on the right hand side). BOA was developed in a Wageningen UR wide project (KB-15-005-001).

Availability

BOA can be downloaded by clicking on the appropriate link at the right side. An example is included in the installer. Please use the contact button at the top of this page for further information.