ABSTRACT One of the promising approaches to structuring complex urban development problems that take into account numerous impact criteria and uncertainties is the modified by the authors morphological analysis method that found its application in complex city planning problems and is considered an important process of converting scientific study into management decisions. Using a system methodology and toolset, we present a morphological model for alternative project configurations of the axial line of the Odesa metro, the construction of which will facilitate the post-war evolution of Odesa to a qualitatively new level of dynamic development. The morphological model is developed and calibrated using an original combination of structural and functional factors, which complexly embrace both the existing urban state and the trends of the city’s further growth demonstrating the possibility of using quantitative indicators in the assessment of impact factors. It allowed us to assess the impact of 10 structural and functional factors and to process over 3,49,000 value configurations to obtain numerical estimates for the comparison of the alternative Odesa metro end station locations. The results highlight the metro line direction to the Fontans’ka road as having a higher priority than the basic variant in the direction of the Lyustdorfs’ka road due to criteria preferences: ‘Favoring the city building potential’ (1,38 versus 0,64), ‘Favoring the recreational development’ (0,97 versus 0,34), ‘Minimization of ecological problems’ (0,69 versus 0,62), and ‘Civil defense’ (1,61 versus 1,03). The placement of the metro line closer to the coastal district favours the investment prospects for construction, forming a system of territories for recreational, wellness and tourist functions, new hubs for relocating business activities from the historical city centre to its southern district, as well as better resilience, which can be effectively used for a wide range of urban planning tasks. HIGHLIGHTS Given the complexity of decision-making in the urban planning field, we present a new methodology for guiding sound urban science: modified morphological analysis. We built morphological models of alternative routes of a proposed new subway line of the Odesa, Ukraine metro, as part of a planned post-war reconstruction. The simulation results showed the expediency of replacing the project route of the southern section of the metro with an alternative one (closer to the coastal strip), demonstrating the power of this method to improve urban planning decision-making.
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