Mind the gap: Comparing expert and public opinions on managing overabundant koalas

Attitudes towards the Potential Use of Aversive Geofencing Devices to Manage Wild Elephant Movement

Aversive geofencing devices (AGDs) or animal-borne satellite-linked shock collars might become a useful tool to mitigate human-elephant conflict (HEC). AGDs have the potential to condition problem elephants to avoid human-dominated landscapes by associating mild electric shocks with preceding audio warnings given as they approach virtual boundaries. We assessed the opinions of different stakeholders (experts, farmers, and others who have and have not experienced HEC; n = 611) on the potential use of AGDs on Asian elephants. Most respondents expressed positive opinions on the potential effectiveness of AGDs in managing elephant movement (62.2%). About 62.8% respondents also provided positive responses for the acceptability of AGDs if pilot studies with captive elephants have been successful in managing their movements. Some respondents perceived AGDs to be unacceptable because they are unethical or harmful and would be unsuccessful given wild elephants may respond differently to AGDs than captive elephants. Respondents identified acceptability, support and awareness of stakeholders, safety and wellbeing of elephants, logistical difficulties, durability and reliable functionality of AGDs, and uncertainties in elephants' responses to AGDs as potential challenges for implementing AGDs. These issues need attention when developing AGDs to increase support from stakeholders and to effectively reduce HEC incidents in the future.

A distributed constraint multi-agent model for water and reclaimed wastewater allocation in urban areas: Application of a modified ADOPT algorithm

Distributed Constraint Optimization (DCOP)-based approaches, as the distributed version of constraint optimization, provide a framework for coordinated decision making by a team of agents. In this paper, an agent-based DCOP model is developed to allocate water and reclaimed wastewater to demands considering the conflicting interests of involved stakeholders. One of the well-known DCOP algorithms, ADOPT¹, is modified to incorporate an agent responsible for monitoring and conserving water resources. This new algorithm considers the social characteristics of agents and a new form of interaction between agents. For the first time in the literature, a real-world water and reclaimed wastewater allocation problem is formulated as a DCOP and solved using the Modified ADOPT (MADOPT) algorithm. To evaluate the MADOPT algorithm, it is applied to a water and reclaimed wastewater allocation problem in Tehran, Iran. The results illustrate the applicability and efficiency of the proposed methodology in dealing with large-scale multi-agent water resources systems. It is also shown that agents' selfishness and social relationships could affect their water use policies.