multimodal different functions and methods of comparison would need to be used accordingly e g non parametric statistical comparisons by using the foregoing methods a resource manager would be able to select the combination of prediction method set and decision making method set with a desired overall pernob value set according to the situation for example implementation of decision s made using a combination of prediction method set and decision making method set that yielded the lowest overall pernob value set assuming normal distribution would often yield optimal benefits from the utilization of the resource however this is not necessarily always the case as aforementioned resource managers are often required to model different time frames or time scales because of their need to consider and plan for both short and long term predictions of resource availability and demand in working with these different models it is imperative that certain confounding inter relationships between models with different time scales are understood and accounted for for instance longer term predictions often have significant influence over shorter term predictions and decision making and of course implementation of decisions made regarding short term resource utilization can reciprocally and significantly impact on longer term predictions and decision making further a resource manager must also consider the level of error and inaccuracy that is inherently built in at the operational level e g where decisions are implemented regardless.