Application of Multiattribute Analysis (MAA) to Search for Optimum Remedial Strategies for Contaminated Lakes With the MOIRA System

The MOIRA  system is a user-friendly, computerised Decision Support System that helps to choose optimal countermeasure strategies for different kinds of aquatic ecosystems contaminated by radionuclides, taking into account ecological, social and economic consequences. It can evaluate several types of countermeasures to reduce the dose via aquatic pathways and to advise the user of the most effective method by accounting for the impacts on the environment, the society and the economy. MOIRA's evaluation module is based on a multi-attribute additive utility model representing the experts' preferences, aimed at identifying the optimal remedial strategies for restoring aquatic ecosystems contaminated by radionuclides. The paper describes the application of the MOIRA system to analyse a set of alternative remedial strategies in the case of Lake Kozhanovskoe, located in the Bryansk region in Russia, which resulted heavily contaminated with Cs-137 after the Chernobyl accident in 1986. Lake Kozhanovskoe was in 1998 granted the status of radioecological reserve and fishing was officially forbidden because of the high levels of fish contamination with Cs-137. The practical test case shows the potential use of the MOIRA system and, in particular, of the MAA methodology, to effectively guide decisions in searching for an effective and optimal use of the available resources.