Multicriteria Spatial Decision Support System Research Articles

Wetland restoration prioritizing, a tool to reduce negative effects of drought; An application of multicriteria-spatial decision support system (MC-SDSS)

In recent years, large parts of arid and semi-arid areas in the world are dealing with water restrictions. In these areas, wetlands provide habitats for migratory birds and have a critical role in socio-ecological systems. Generally, in these areas, changing water-use patterns because of land-use change and water limitation because of climate change have led to the loss of wide areas of wetlands. Wetland restoration is suggested to restore the functions and values of wetlands that have been destroyed or affected by stresses. In this paper, a new application of wetland restoration prioritizing is introduced; restoration prioritizing to reduce the negative effects of drought. In this method, areas with the highest priority for restoration will be determined in a wetland destroyed because of water limitations. Multicriteria-spatial decision support system (MC-SDSS) was used to plan a scheme for Hamun wetlands restoration prioritizing in order to reduce the negative effects of drought and to restore the wetlands. This prioritization-determined areas that are valuable for Long-term water conservation, reduce the negative effects of dust storms and conserve water bird’s habitats. This method was used in a wetland that is the only water resource in the middle of a wide arid plain. Because of water limitation, it is not possible to restore the hole wetland; therefore, different parts of this wetland were prioritized for restoration. Based on the results, it is possible to produce a model to determine which priority can be restored in each amount of water volume. In this way, it becomes clear for decision-makers to select areas for restoration in different volumes of water. The result of this study shows that since MC-SDSS decreases conflicts between alternatives in a decision-making process and uses their spatial situation, it is a preferred method to balance among conflicting goals. Furthermore, because spatial data are the most important parts of MC-SDSS, this paper shows the ability of remote sensing to be used in MC-SDSS method. It seems that in the future; remote sensing will have the most important role in MC-SDSS.

A fuzzy multi-criteria spatial decision support system for solar farm location planning

In recent years, investment in solar energy has increased substantially across countries. Thus, selecting convenient locations for solar farms has become a fundamental problem when determining the investment required due to differences in climatic factors, the type and availability of land, transportation infrastructures, and the quality of power lines. Multi-Criteria Evaluation approaches based on crisp data are generally used in the selection process of optimal locations. However, despite being crisp, the data available when considering the evaluation criteria of the different alternatives constitute a discrete approximation performed on a spatial grid of potential locations. Thus, we introduce a three-stage fuzzy evaluation framework designed to account for the imprecision inherent to the evaluations when identifying the most convenient location for constructing solar power farms. First, we implement ANFIS (Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System) on the set of grid intersection crisp data points and derive a coherent set of approximations per each potential discrete location and evaluation criterion. Then, the fuzzy AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) method is used to determine the weights of the different criteria considered from the linguistic evaluations provided by different experts. Finally, we define a set of if-then rules combining the different ANFIS evaluation criteria and their weights within a FIS (Fuzzy Inference System) whose output is used to determine the most convenient location for constructing a solar power farm. The efficacy of the proposed evaluation framework is demonstrated through its application to the Iranian regions of Kerman and Yazd.

Landscape Services Assessment: A Hybrid Multi-Criteria Spatial Decision Support System (MC-SDSS)

This research aims to test a scalable and transferable Geographic Information System (GIS)-based evaluation methodology for the identification, quantification and assessment of multi-functional landscape features. The evaluation of multi-functional features is one of the key tasks required when it comes to identifying the values that people attribute to landscapes, according to the principles of the European Landscape Convention. Mapping the static distribution of Landscape Services (LS) through data-derived estimates and performing spatial composite indicators are fundamental steps in understanding the current state of the Social–Ecological System (SES) of threatened or resilient landscapes. The methodological process is structured in four phases: intelligence (i), design (ii), choice (iii) and outcome (iv), according to the framework of the Multi-Criteria Spatial Decision Support System (MC-SDSS). This process has been implemented in the case study of the National Park of Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni (Italy). The weighting of the spatial indicators, which simulates the model of LS-functioning for the study area, derives from an entropy-based method. Such a method, by which the weights are estimated without decisional agents, concerns a key-concept of information entropy theory, whereby the amount of information for each criterion determines its relative importance within a defined set of spatial criteria. The output of the model concerns mapping composite indicators of the LS; this involves the macro-categories of Regulating, Provisioning, and Cultural Services.

Multicriteria Spatial Decision Support Systems for Future Urban Energy Retrofitting Scenarios

Nowadays, there is an increasing concern about sustainable urban energy development taking into account national priorities of each city. Many cities have started to define future strategies and plans to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Urban energy scenarios involve the consideration of a wide range of conflicting criteria, both socio-economic and environmental ones. Moreover, decision-makers (DMs) require proper tools that can support their choices in a context of multiple stakeholders and a long-term perspective. In this context, Multicriteria Spatial Decision Support Systems (MC-SDSS) are often used in order to define and analyze urban scenarios since they support the comparison of different solutions, based on a combination of multiple factors. The main problem, in relation to urban energy retrofitting scenarios, is the lack of appropriate knowledge and evaluation criteria. The latter are crucial for delivering and assessing urban energy scenarios through a MC-SDSS tool. The main goal of this paper is to analyze and test two different methods for the definition and ranking of the evaluation criteria. More specifically, the paper presents an on-going research study related to the development of a MC-SDSS tool able to identify and evaluate alternative energy urban scenarios in a long-term period perspective. This study refers to two Smart City and Communities research projects, namely: DIMMER (District Information Modeling and Management for Energy Reduction) and EEB (Zero Energy Buildings in Smart Urban Districts).

The study of building integration into the surrounding rural landscape: Focus on implementation of a Web-based MC-SDSS and its validation by two-way participation

Everyday people are tackling various decisions. Decision problems in the spatial planning sense often are involved with many alternatives because of their complicated characters and are evaluated on multiple-perspectives based. This paper deals with the implementation of a Web-based Multi-Criteria Spatial Decision Support System (MC-SDSS) and its validation by two-way participation aimed at assessing the suitability of new rural tourism buildings integration occurred in Spanish landscapes. The proposed system focuses on the methodology combined with Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) that borrows Geographic Information System (GIS) capabilities. Several parameters with an overlay and index method are used to evaluate the suitability of a case study area in Spain. Based on the results of a previous work where the authors defined the first phases of a conceptual framework implementation and prototype application with the methodology, this paper presents the final web implementation and its validation. The implementation was consisted of four consecutive sections with improvements from the previous one. Then, it showed the validated results with radar diagrams, reflecting the different perception of spatial models based on the qualitative two-way content and survey data, public and academic participation, according to the sense of place and field concept. The results contribute consensus on recommendation and new knowledge within the broader field of the analysis and interpretation of the building integration with the Web-based MC-SDSS, which is fundamental to support proper land-uses and decision alternatives through accurate and efficient tool, and to able to apply other destinations.

A web-based multicriteria evaluation of spatial trade-offs between environmental and economic implications from hydraulic fracturing in a shale gas region in Ohio

Planning of shale gas infrastructure and drilling sites for hydraulic fracturing has important spatial implications. The evaluation of conflicting and competing objectives requires an explicit consideration of multiple criteria as they have important environmental and economic implications. This study presents a web-based multicriteria spatial decision support system (SDSS) prototype with a flexible and user-friendly interface that could provide educational or decision-making capabilities with respect to hydraulic fracturing site selection in eastern Ohio. One of the main features of this SDSS is to emphasize potential trade-offs between important factors of environmental and economic ramifications from hydraulic fracturing activities using a weighted linear combination (WLC) method. In the prototype, the GIS-enabled analytical components allow spontaneous visualization of available alternatives on maps which provide value-added features for decision support processes and derivation of final decision maps. The SDSS prototype also facilitates nonexpert participation capabilities using a mapping module, decision-making tool, group decision module, and social media sharing tools. The logical flow of successively presented forms and standardized criteria maps is used to generate visualization of trade-off scenarios and alternative solutions tailored to individual user's preferences that are graphed for subsequent decision-making.

Breen buys Hudson

In recent years, large parts of arid and semi-arid areas in the world are dealing with water restrictions. In these areas, wetlands provide habitats for migratory birds and have a critical role in socio-ecological systems. Generally, in these areas, changing water-use patterns because of land-use change and water limitation because of climate change have led to the loss of wide areas of wetlands. Wetland restoration is suggested to restore the functions and values of wetlands that have been destroyed or affected by stresses. In this paper, a new application of wetland restoration prioritizing is introduced; restoration prioritizing to reduce the negative effects of drought. In this method, areas with the highest priority for restoration will be determined in a wetland destroyed because of water limitations. Multicriteria-spatial decision support system (MC-SDSS) was used to plan a scheme for Hamun wetlands restoration prioritizing in order to reduce the negative effects of drought and to restore the wetlands. This prioritization-determined areas that are valuable for Long-term water conservation, reduce the negative effects of dust storms and conserve water bird’s habitats. This method was used in a wetland that is the only water resource in the middle of a wide arid plain. Because of water limitation, it is not possible to restore the hole wetland; therefore, different parts of this wetland were prioritized for restoration. Based on the results, it is possible to produce a model to determine which priority can be restored in each amount of water volume. In this way, it becomes clear for decision-makers to select areas for restoration in different volumes of water. The result of this study shows that since MC-SDSS decreases conflicts between alternatives in a decision-making process and uses their spatial situation, it is a preferred method to balance among conflicting goals. Furthermore, because spatial data are the most important parts of MC-SDSS, this paper shows the ability of remote sensing to be used in MC-SDSS method. It seems that in the future; remote sensing will have the most important role in MC-SDSS.

Using MACBETH Multicriteria Technique for GIS-Based Landfill Suitability Analysis

AbstractRegarding the inability to fulfill regional landfill demands, the inefficiency of municipal solid waste management systems due to shortages of suitable and efficient infrastructures remains a crucial social issue. In addition, the fact that there are numerous environmental, social, and design factors that need to be taken into account by decision makers (DMs) raises serious concerns regarding the task of identifying appropriate sites for municipal solid waste landfills. For this reason, the use of multicriteria spatial decision support systems, the synergic combination of geographic information system (GIS) and multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) methods, is proposed, taking into consideration the spatial nature of the problem and the need to incorporate conflicting objectives and DM preferences. The paper at hand proposes a framework that enables the implementation of the measuring attractiveness by a categorical based evaluation technique (MACBETH) method in GIS-based raster-driven suitabilit...

Key challenges and meta-choices in designing and applying multi-criteria spatial decision support systems

There is an increasing use of multi-criteria spatial decision support systems in recent years for dealing with problems that have a spatial distribution of consequences. This growth might be explained by the widespread recognition that there are multiple and conflicting objectives to be considered in spatial planning (e.g. minimizing pollution to air, water and soil, increasing the acceptance of the projects, reducing implementation costs), by new requirements to consider societal values in the evaluation and to increase participation in decision processes, as well as by the crucial role that the spatial dimension plays in such problems. However, we argue in this paper that there are key challenges confronted by DSS designers who are developing such systems and by DSS practitioners who are employing them to support decision making. These challenges impose important meta-choices to designers and practitioners, which may lead to different contents of the evaluation model and to distinctive outcomes of the analysis. In this paper, we present and discuss these key challenges and the associated meta-choices. The contribution that we aim to provide to both researchers and practitioners can be summarized as follows: (i) an increased awareness about choices to be made in the design and implementation of these decision support systems; (ii) a better understanding about the available alternatives for each choice, based on recent developments in the literature; and (iii) a clearer appraisal about the inherent trade-offs between advantages and disadvantages of each alternative.

A Spatial Decision Support Tool to Study Risks and Opportunities of Complex Environmental Systems

An important problem arising when assessing territorial systems is linked to their complexity. This requires multidimensional approaches for the evaluation in order to obtain concise final judgments. Moreover, when dealing with territorial systems, the analysis of the geographical patterns of the elements under investigation plays a fundamental role. This paper proposes an integrated approach for the analysis of a complex environmental system based on the use of Multicriteria-Spatial Decision Support Systems (MC-SDSS). MC-SDSS consist in the integration of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Multicriteria Decision Aiding (MCDA) techniques. In particular, starting from a real case related to a mountain area in Northern Italy, the present paper explores the potentialities of the MC-SDSS methodology for supporting the definition of future transformation scenarios.

A multicriteria spatial decision support system for solving emergency service station location problems

Earthquakes occurring in urban areas constitute an important concern for emergency management and rescue services. Emergency service location problems may be formulated in discrete space or by restricting the potential location(s) to a specified finite set of points in continuous space. We propose a Multicriteria Spatial Decision Support System to identify shelters and emergency service locations in urban evacuation planning. The proposed system has emerged as an integration of the geographical information systems (GIS) and the multicriteria Decision-Making method of Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation IV (PROMETHEE IV). This system incorporates multiple and often conflicting criteria and decision-makers’ preferences into a spatial decision model. We consider three standard structural attributes (i.e., durability density, population density, and oldness density) in the form of spatial maps to determine the zones most vulnerable to an earthquake. The information on these spatial maps is then entered into the ArcGIS software to define the relevant scores for each point with regards to the aforementioned attributes. These scores will be used to compute the preference functions in PROMETHEE IV, whose net flow outranking for each alternative will be inputted in ArcGIS to determine the zones that are most vulnerable to an earthquake. The final scores obtained are integrated into a mathematical programming model designed to find the most suitable locations for the construction of emergency service stations. We demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method and the efficacy of the procedures and algorithms in an earthquake emergency service station planning case study in the city of Tehran.

New spatial decision support systems for sustainable urban and regional development

Purpose– Policy makers are frequently challenged by the need to achieve sustainable development in cities and regions. Current decision-making processes are based on evaluation support systems which are unable to tackle the problem as they cannot take a holistic approach or a full account of actors. The purpose of this paper is to present a new generation of evaluation systems to support decision making in planning and regeneration processes which involve expert participation. These systems ensure network representation of the issues involved and visualization of multiple scenarios.Design/methodology/approach– A literature review is used for both revising existing evaluation tools in urban planning and the built environment and highlighting the need to give stakeholders (industry, cities, operators, etc.) new tools for collaborative or individual decisions and to facilitate scaling up solutions. An overview of the new generation of decision support systems, named Multicriteria Spatial Decision Support Systems (MC-SDSS) is provided and real case studies are analyzed to show their ability to tackle the problem.Findings– Recent research findings highlight that decisions in urban planning should be supported by collaborative and inclusive processes. Otherwise, they will fail. The case studies illustrated in this study highlight the usefulness of MC-SDSS for the successful resolution of complex problems, thanks to the visualization facilities and a network representation of the scenarios.Research limitations/implications– The case studies are limited to the Italian context.Practical implications– These SDSS are able to empower planners and decision makers to better understand the interaction between city design, social preferences, economic issues and policy incentives. Therefore, they have been employed in several case studies related to territorial planning and regeneration processes.Originality/value– This study provides three case studies and a review of the new MC-SDSS methodology which involve the Analytic Network Process technique to support decision-making in urban and regional planning.

Giving space to multicriteria analysis for complex cultural heritage systems: The case of the castles in Valle D’Aosta Region, Italy

Abstract When dealing with cultural built heritage, the enhancement strategies are generally rooted on the history and based on the embedded values of cultural goods themselves, rather than on the multiplicity of their tangible and intangible values. Furthermore, the current state of the art in cultural heritage management lacks of an appropriate legislation and adequate instruments to be used by decision makers in order to achieve a holistic vision of the problem. Traditionally, decisions are made just by allocating resources case by case and by adopting policies based on simplifications of reality. In addition to dissipation of resources and unsuccessful results, this approach highlights the need of using an evaluative framework starting from the early stages of the decision-making processes. In the above perspective, the paper explores the use of multicriteria-spatial decision support systems (MC-SDSS) in order to define enhancement strategies for cultural built heritage. The integration among different evaluation methodologies (SWOT analysis and analytic network process) and tools with spatial analysis strengthens the explorative role of this kind of approaches. In this research the MC-SDSS has been applied to a system of thirteen castles in a mountainous region in the North of Italy. The study has been carried out with a special attention to the mutual relationship among this system of goods and the surroundings, according to a multidimensional structure of analysis.

Biogas plants site selection integrating Multicriteria Decision Aid methods and GIS techniques: A case study in a Portuguese region

This work addresses the problem of determining the most suitable sites for locating biogas plants using dairy manure as feedstock, specifically in the Entre-Douro-e-Minho Region in Portugal. A Multicriteria Spatial Decision Support System is developed to tackle this complex multicriteria decision-making problem, involving constraints and many environmental, economic, safety, and social factors. The approach followed combines the use of a Geographic Information System (GIS) to manage and process spatial information with the flexibility of Multicriteria Decision Aid (MCDA) to assess factual information (e.g. soil type, slope, infrastructures) with more subjective information (e.g. expert opinion). The MCDA method used is ELECTRE TRI, an outranking-type method that yields a classification of the possible alternatives. The results of the performed analysis show that the use of ELECTRE TRI is suitable to address real-world problems of land suitability, leading towards a flexible and integrated assessment.

A group multicriteria spatial decision support system for parking site selection problem: A case study

Tehran, the capital of Iran and one of the largest cities in the world, faces uncontrolled urban expansion. Over the last few decades, urban expansion and traffic congestion in Tehran has greatly increased the demand for public parking facilities. In recent years, urban policy makers and the local municipalities of Tehran have focused their efforts on increasing the number of public parking facilities in different areas of the city. Their approach to parking site selection has been centralized, and has received some criticism for a perceived failure to represent certain interest groups and stakeholders coupled with an inability to provide a platform for active participation and collaboration. Due to many conflicting issues, the number of factors inherent to parking site selection, the increasing diversity of expertise areas, and the current trend to democratize planning, the use of participatory or collaborative planning methods for parking site selection has proven to be more effective. This paper presents a Web-based group GIS-MCDA procedure and tool to address the issue of parking site selection in Tehran. The integration of GIS and Multicriteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) capabilities into the Web platform offers an effective Multicriteria Spatial Decision Support System (MC-SDSS) with which to involve stakeholders and other groups in site selection processes. Such a system makes it possible to find appropriate sites that may reconcile the conflicting objectives resulting from different opinions and the final site selection outcome that can be accepted by the majority. The paper demonstrates the implementation of the proposed system for tackling the parking site selection problem in the center of District # 22 of Tehran.

The decision task complexity and information acquisition strategies in GIS-MCDA

This paper addresses the research question of how does the complexity of a decision task affect information acquisition strategies used by decision-makers in a GIS-based multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA)? It reports the results of an experimental study that investigated the effect of task complexity (information load) on information acquisition strategies in the use of a multicriteria spatial decision support system (MC-SDSS). The experiment involved the use of the MC-SDSS for online parking site selection (ranking) in District # 22 of Tehran, Iran at four levels of complexity. The complexity of the site selection task was manipulated in terms of the number of: (1) decision alternatives available to decision-makers and (2) the evaluation criteria (attributes) used to describe the alternatives. At each level of task complexity, the site selection process was carried out in two GIS-MCDA modes: individual and group (collaborative) modes. The findings demonstrate that: (1) an increase in task complexity tend to result in the use of non-compensatory decision strategies; (2) decision-makers using compensatory strategies spend more time acquiring information from decision tables than maps, and (3) the task complexity has no impact on the interaction between the map and table uses.

Development of a Web-based Multi-criteria Spatial Decision Support System for the assessment of environmental sustainability of dairy farms

The assessment of the environmental sustainability of agricultural infrastructures involves the use of multiple evaluation criteria and the analysis of geographical information. A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a computer system capable of assembling, storing, analysing, and displaying geographically referenced information. However, the GIS technology still suffers from several shortcomings due in large part to a lack of capable analytical capacity of supporting spatial decision problems. The most common solution for GIS to evolve into an effective tool for decision support is to couple them with operational research tools and in particular Multicriteria Decision Aid (MCDA). Due to the technological advances in the field of information systems, there is a great need to research how to integrate GIS, MCDA, the Internet, modeling and databases aiming at creating Web Multicriteria Spatial Decision Support Systems (Web MC-SDSSs). A Web MC-SDSS methodological framework is proposed for a fully integrated system of GIS and a specific MCDA method – ELECTRE TRI, through the construction of a Macro written in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) in ArcGIS software. This macro interacts with a Web Algorithm Server for computing MCDA results. The developed Web MC-SDSS, named ELECTRE TRI in ArcGIS, is applied on a case study analysing the environmental sustainability of dairy farms in the Entre-Douro-e-Minho (EDM) Region.

Multicriteria Spatial Analysis for Competitive Cultural Heritage in Fringe Areas: The Case of Valle d’Aosta Vastles

The Alpine territories show a strong potential in reaching the targets set out by the European policies related to smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. The present paper reflects about the role of cultural heritage in supporting local development processes in mountain areas. In particular, Valle d’Aosta castles’ system (Italy) is considered in the study, with particular reference to the analysis of the opportunities and the risks at the regional scale. The results of the work delineate how Multicriteria-Spatial Decision Support Systems (MC-SDSS) can support the definition of enhancement strategies by providing a wide and integrated knowledge of the cultural heritage under investigation. The introduction of MC-SDSS in the field of historical assets’ conservation is quite innovative. Differently from the traditional analysis, the use of such an integrated approach allows decision maker to consider the spatial features of each development option and to evaluate simultaneously their multidimensional impacts.

Transportation Infrastructure Impacts Evaluation: The Case of Egnatia Motorway in Greece

To expand GIS abilities to the consideration of decision criteria, OR/MS researchers strongly pronounce in favor of developing synergies between GIS and multicriteria decision making tools. The rationale of this integration is the GIS ability to store and manage and visualize geographically referenced data and the efficiency of Operational Research tools for modeling decision problems. As a result, MultiCriteria Spatial Decision Support Systems (MC-SDSS) provide a consistent framework that allows alternatives’ ranking combining both spatial data and DMs preferences according to a selected decision rule. Regarding to their applicability in situations that involve classification, multiattribute decision models are considered as a very attractive procedure in urban and regional planning concerning the appraisal of transportation infrastructure construction. In the present a spatial multicriteria evaluation of the impacts derived by the realization of Egnatia Motorway is performed. Egnatia Motorway is considered one of the most significant interventions that have taken place in Greece during the early pre-Olympic Games period and up to the year 2007. With a length of 670 km, it crosses 12 prefectures starting from the Igoumenitsa Port, which provides links by boat to Italy, ending to Kipi in Evros (Greek-Turkish borders). It is a dual carriageway with two traffic lanes per direction with an overall construction cost of about 6b€. Aiming to enrich Northern Greece’s potential in transport industry and tourism, European Union has heavily invested in its construction. In the present paper an integration among GIS functionalities and multi-attribute decision making models such as Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Ideal Point Methods is proposed in order to estimate the impacts provoked by the construction and operation of Egnatia Motorway in regional level.

GIS-based multicriteria municipal solid waste landfill suitability analysis: A review of the methodologies performed and criteria implemented

Multicriteria spatial decision support systems (MC-SDSS) have emerged as an integration of the geographical information systems (GIS) and multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) methods. GIS-based MCDA allows the incorporation of conflicting objectives and decision maker (DM) preferences into spatial decision models. During recent decades, a variety of research articles have been published regarding the implementation of methods and/or tools in a variety of real-world case studies. The article discusses, in detail, the criteria and methods that are implemented in GIS-based landfill siting suitability analysis and especially the exclusionary and non-exclusionary criteria that can be considered when selecting sites for municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills. This paper reviews 36 seminal articles in which the evaluation of candidate landfill sites is conducted using MCDA methods. After a brief description of the main components of a MC-SDSS and the applied decision rules, the review focuses on the criteria incorporated into the decision models. The review provides a comprehensive guide to the landfill siting analysis criteria, providing details regarding the utilization methods, their decision or exclusionary nature and their monotonicity.