A Public Participatory GIS and Multi Criteria Decision Analysis framework for the Evaluation of Transport Scenarios

Abstract

The decision-making process of transport projects is very complex, especially for public administrations which have to take into account often incomparable criteria of judgment. In addition, in order to achieve a good social sharing and robustness of the decision, policy makers have to include in the process not only the transport planning experts but also the stakeholders of the community. The purpose of this study is to propose an evaluation framework that supports the decision making process able to allow public participation in the assessment of transport design scenarios while at the same time ensuring a high level of technical quality of the final decision. The framework will include a method to analyze monetary and non-monetary parameters that will be easily understandable for all decision makers. It will be based on the application of Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) techniques, an evaluation process that can take into account different quantitative and qualitative objectives and criteria; in order to favor public participation, the implementation of this technique will take advantage of Geographic Information System (GIS) for its ability to easily represent the impact of spatially based alternative project scenarios. Different case studies will be analyzed in order to assess the level of implementation of the three main ingredients of the framework: Multi Criteria Analysis, GIS and Public Participation.