A Scenario-Based Spatial Multi-Criteria Decision-Making System for Urban Environment Quality Assessment: Case Study of Tehran

Abstract

Spatial evaluation of urban environment quality (UEQ) is a key prerequisite in urban planning and development. The main goal of this study is to present a scenario-based spatial multi-criteria decision-making system for evaluating UEQ. Therefore, stakeholder involvement was conducted and eight environmental criteria and six spatial-functional criteria were identified for five districts of Tehran. The weight of the effective criteria was calculated using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) model. Then, the ordered weighted averaging (OWA) model was used to prepare UEQ maps in different scenarios, including very pessimistic, pessimistic, intermediate, optimistic, and very optimistic. Finally, the spatial distribution of the district population in different classes of UEQ was evaluated. Among the spatial-functional and environmental criteria, the sub-criteria of population density and air pollution, respectively, had the greatest impact on UEQ. In very pessimistic, intermediate, optimistic, and very optimistic scenarios, approximately 76.7, 51.8, 36.4, 23.7, and 9.8 km2 of the studied area had unsuitable UEQ conditions, respectively. In the very pessimistic scenario, about 37,000 and 1,500,000 people lived in areas with suitable and unsuitable UEQ conditions, respectively. In the very optimistic scenario, the population increased to over 917,000 in areas with suitable UEQ and decreased to 336,000 in those with unsuitable UEQ conditions in terms of both environmental and spatial-functional criteria. The research results showed that a high percentage of the population in the study area live under unsuitable UEQ conditions, which indicates the need for attention to improving the current UEQ conditions. The proposed approach is timely to gain a better understanding of the adverse impact of climate change on human well-being in marginal societies and how climate-resilient urban planning can play a significant role.