Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Connecting Big Data With Big Decisions: Ideas For Synthesizing Analytics And Decision Analysis, Jeffrey Keisler

Management Science and Information Systems Faculty Publication Series

This paper describes an approach to connect decision analysis models with outputs of analytic methods applied to various types of big data. Decision analysis models focus on issues of concern to a decision maker and incorporate use of a range of methods and axioms to develop insights about what the decision maker should do. In particular, decision analysis models typically use subjective judgments from the decision maker to describe beliefs about the likelihood of events and the desirability of outcomes. In order for human judgments to be improved by the availability of large amounts of data and processing power, it …

New Bedford/Fairhaven Municipal Harbor Plan, Fort Point Associates, Inc., Apex Companies, Llc, Urban Harbors Institute, University Of Massachusetts Boston, Fxm Associates

Urban Harbors Institute Publications

The historic harbor lying between the City of New Bedford and Town of Fairhaven has shaped the identities and economies of these two municipalities for centuries. Today, the Harbor is one of nation’s preeminent fishing ports, ranked #1 nationally in 2007 in dollar value ($268 million) of fish landings with an estimated total economic regional impact of nearly $1 billion. The New Bedford’s seafood processing industry has grown in size and sophistication in recent years and is an internationally established center for this industry. Marine service and vessel repair industries, centered in Fairhaven, have an excellent reputation with commercial fleets …

Florida Boating Access Facilities Inventory And Economic Study, Including A Pilot Study For Lee County: A Report To The Florida Fish And Wildlife Conservation Commission, Urban Harbors Institute, University Of Massachusetts Boston, Bordner Research, Inc., Recreational Marine Research Center Of Michigan State University, Center For Urban And Environmental Solutions Of Florida Atlantic University, Environmental Economics, Inc., Planning And Zoning Center Of Michigan State University, Resource Economics Research, Llc

Urban Harbors Institute Publications

This report describes the work program and results of the "Statewide Boating Access Facilities Inventory and Economic Study Including a Pilot Study for Lee County, Florida" commissioned by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) in 2005. The study was funded in part by a grant to the FWC from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and by Lee County. The scope and objectives of the study are summarized in the introduction, and the subsequent sections report on the various components of the study.

For many years, Florida has been among the fastest growing states in the nation, which …

Green Pond Harbor Management Plan (Draft), Urban Harbors Institute, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Urban Harbors Institute Publications

Green Pond is one of a number of coastal ponds in Falmouth. It covers over 135 acres and is an important natural and recreational resource for the people of Falmouth and visitors. Most of the area around the pond is private residential property interspersed with a few commercial businesses and open space. As with other areas of Massachusetts, the tidelands around the pond fall within the jurisdiction of Chapter 91 (the Massachusetts Public Waterfront Act). Through Chapter 91, the Commonwealth seeks to preserve and protect the rights of the public, and to guarantee that private uses of tidelands and waterways …

A Survey Of Schema Matching Research, Roger Blake

College of Management Working Papers and Reports

Schema matching is the process of developing semantic matches between two or more schemas. The purpose of schema matching is generally either to merge two or more databases, or to enable queries on multiple, heterogeneous databases to be formulated on a single schema (Doan and Halevy 2005). This paper develops a taxonomy of schema matching approaches, classifying them as being based on a combination schema matching technique and the type of data used by those techniques. Schema matching techniques are categorized as being based on rules, learning, or ontology, and the type of data used is categorized as being based …

Report I: An Assessment Of The Coastal And Marine Economies Of Massachusetts, University Of Massachusetts Donahue Institute, Urban Harbors Institute, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Urban Harbors Institute Publications

This three-part study — An Assessment of the Coastal and Marine Economies of Massachusetts — provides an analysis of the economic value of the coastal and marine economies as well as an overview of employment, wages, business activities and trends within important sectors of the Massachusetts marine economy. The data used is primarily from 2004, unless otherwise noted.

Boston Harbor Islands Renewables Planning Guide, Urban Harbors Institute, University Of Massachusetts Boston, Island Alliance

Urban Harbors Institute Publications

This document presents a summary of findings and recommendations from a predevelopment study of the feasibility of establishing renewable energy power generation on several of the grid-tied Boston Harbor Islands. The scope of the study was to investigate the factors and issues associated with installing a mix of renewables — wind, solar, wave and tidal/current power generating facilities — with a combined output of between one and ten megawatts at sites on or around five of the Boston Harbor Islands. Four of these islands are presently grid-tied: Long Island, Moon Island, Spectacle Island, and Thompson Island. A fifth island, Peddocks …

Additivity Of Information Value In Two-Act Linear Loss Decisions With Normal Priors, Jeffrey Keisler

Management Science and Information Systems Faculty Publication Series

For the two-act linear loss decision problem with normal priors, conditions are derived for which the expected value of perfect information about two independent risks is super-additive in value. Several applications show how a variety of decision problems can reduce to the canonical problem, and how the general results obtained here can be translated simply to prescriptions for specific situations.

Weir River Estuary: Land Protection Plan, Chantal Lefebvre, Michelle Portman

Urban Harbors Institute Publications

If economic growth were the only measure of a community’s health and vitality, then the communities of Cohasset, Hingham, and Hull are fairing well. But this economic success is generally accompanied by changes in the physical landscape that can be unsettling for residents, especially when it means more development and expansion at the expense of culturally and socially important open space areas such as parks, woods, and marshes. The rapid pace and fragmented nature of such sprawling development gives communities little opportunity to come to terms with the long-term impacts, which in turn can lead to a sense of powerlessness …

Technical Note: Comparative Static Analysis Of Information Value In A Canonical Decision Problem, Jeffrey Keisler

Management Science and Information Systems Faculty Publication Series

To gain insight into the behavior of the value of information, this paper identifies specific rules for a canonical decision problem: the two-act linear loss decision with normal prior probability distributions. Conditions are derived for which the expected value of perfect information increases when mean and standard deviation are both linear functions of an exogenous variable. A variety of richer decision problems can be adapted to the problem, so that the general results obtained here can be immediately applied to understand drivers of information value.

South Shore Vessel Pumpout Evaluation & Outreach Plan, Final Report, Dan Hellin, Chantal Lefebvre, Michelle Portman, Samantha Woods

Urban Harbors Institute Publications

During the course of this study, 413 boaters, seven pumpout facility operators and a number of state and municipal officials either were interviewed or completed questionnaires focused on the boat sewage pumpout facilities along the South Shore of Massachusetts.

The aims of the boater survey were to:

• collect data on how boaters disposed of their sewage waste;
• learn how well informed boaters were regarding the location of sewage pumpouts;
• determine if boaters were able to find operational pumpout facilities when they needed them;
• learn what common problems had been experienced when using pumpouts;
• determine if there were adequate facilities to …

Combining Multi-Attribute Utility And Geographic Information For Boundary Decisions: An Application To Park Planning, Jeffrey Keisler, Ronald Sundell

Management Science and Information Systems Faculty Publication Series

The quality and value of an area depend primarily on what is found within its designated boundaries. To determine the value of such areas in terms of boundaries, we have developed a methodology for integrating multi-attribute utility functions with spatial analysis so that desirable, or appropriate, boundaries can be determined on the basis of the goals and objectives for the park. The key to successful evaluation is the development of measures for what decision makers value, rather than merely using what is easily measured. In a detailed example for planning of national parks, the fundamental objectives are conservation and societal …