A microcomputer-based- system for multicriteria environmental impacts evaluation of urban road networks

Abstract

A microcomputer-based decision support system, namely `Spatial Intelligent Multicriteria Environmental Sensitivity Evaluation Planning Tool' (SIMESEPT) was applied to evaluate the multicriteria Environmental Sensitivity of the Geelong road network, in Victoria, Australia. SIMESEPT is an integration of information technologies (Knowledge-Based Expert Systems (KBES) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS)), Fuzzy Set Theory (FST), multicriteria decision-making techniques (Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Fuzzy Multiattribute Decision Making (FMADM) method), and traffic environmental impact evaluation methods (Environmental Sensitivity Methodology (ESM) and some analytical models). The outcomes of the application indicate the potential utility of the system for investigating and assessing both separate and composite environmental consequences caused by road traffic in urban road network at a link-based level, indicating problem locations, and specifying the possible causes and key contributing factors to those problems. In the AHP synthesis phase, both the principle of hierarchic composition (used in the Typical AHP (TAHP) approach) and the fuzzy compositional evaluation methods (employed in Fuzzy Compositional AHP (FCAHP) approach) were utilised to aggregate all local priorities to achieve global priorities (representing the Composite Environmental Sensitivity Indices (CESI)) of each link in the central Geelong road network. It was found that the TAHP appears to be more powerful in differentiating links according to their combined ES characteristics than the FCAHP.