Strategic decision support system for utility tunnel’s planning applying A’WOT method

Abstract

Future sustainable underground strategies will consist of the ability to reduce overcrowding subsurface space in our cities. To this end, utility tunnels become a key factor in urban underground planning. These facilities improve joint-use of urban underground space (UUS) that may contain multiple utilities such as water, sewerage, gas, electrical power, telephone, and central heating in several combinations or in some cases all together. However, implementing these subsurface tunnels is retarded most by first-cost, compatibility, security and liability problems. All these drawbacks should be addressed in early planning stages taking into account the uniqueness of each city. Therefore, expert consensus panels from public and private organizations should determine appropriate policies for developing utility tunnels network. This research work applies A’WOT hybrid method combining SWOT analysis and analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to study utility tunnel planning in urban areas. The hybrid method takes account of internal resources and capabilities (strengths and weakness) and external factors (opportunities and threats). SWOT analysis is a structured way to analyze these four factors, while AHP technique achieves pairwise comparisons among factors in order to prioritize them using the eigenvector method. The quantitative strategic analysis obtained from the decision support system should be used as a preliminary step in urban planning of future utility tunnel networks.