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 to support the decision making process, able to allow public participation in the assessment of transport planning and design scenarios while, at the same time, ensuring a high level of technical quality of the final decision. The designed framework includes a method to analyze monetary and non-monetary parameters, easily understandable for all decision makers. It is 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 takes advantage of Geographic Information System (GIS) for its ability to easily represent the impact of spatially based alternative project scenarios. The analysis of several case studies on transport planning and design scenarios allowed to assess the level of implementation of the three main ingredients of the framework: MCDA, GIS and public participation.