Comparing multicriteria methods in the context of environmental problems

Abstract The present paper gives an analysis of the use of ELECTRE III, PROMETHEE I, II, and SMART decision-aids in the context of four different real applications to environmental problems in Finland. These methods are widely used decision-aids in the real planning processes. The purpose of this study is to define the differences of these methods and the results obtained with them, and in this way also to consider their applicability in aiding environmental decision-making. Furthermore, a comparison of the methods based on a set of randomly generated problems is carried out. The choice in practice will not be easy; PROMETHEE does not differ much from SMART with linear value functions, and …

ELECTRE III and IV Decision Aids in an Environmental Problem

This paper gives a description and analysis of the use of ELECTRE III and IV decision aids in the context of choosing a solid waste management system in two different real applications in Finland. Both methods fit this context well in general, since the problem involves many criteria and many ‘decision makers’. The available data are imprecise, which also favours the use of outranking methods. In addition to the real applications, we also study the choice behaviour offered for decision makers in connection with these methods by looking at some test results obtained from randomly generated problems. In general, the results of ELECTRE III and IV do not differ substantially from those from the…

A multiple criteria decision model for analyzing and choosing among different development patterns for the Helsinki cargo harbor

Abstract This paper describes a real application of a multicriteria approach to choosing among different options for developing the Helsinki harbor. In addition to the environmental impact assessment procedure, an analysis of the alternatives using the SMAA-method (Stochastic Multiobjective Acceptability Analysis) is carried out. The method applied here has been developed for situations in which the use of decision-makers’ preference information is not possible. Instead, the problem is described by typical weight vectors leading to each solution, taking into account the evident uncertainty embedded in the criteria values.

SMAA - Stochastic multiobjective acceptability analysis

Stochastic multiobjective acceptability analysis (SMAA) is a multicriteria decision support technique for multiple decision makers based on exploring the weight space. Inaccurate or uncertain input data can be represented as probability distributions. In SMAA the decision makers need not express their preferences explicitly or implicitly; instead the technique analyses what kind of valuations would make each alternative the preferred one. The method produces for each alternative an acceptability index measuring the variety of different valuations that support that alternative, a central weight vector representing the typical valuations resulting in that decision, and a confidence factor mea…

Aluetaloustieteen menetelmät liikennejärjestelmän kehittämisen vaikutustarkastelussa

Tässä selvityksessä on arvioitu, voidaanko aluetaloudellisilla tarkasteluilla selvittää liikenneinfrastruktuurien kehittämiseen sekä liikenteen hinnoitteluun ja sääntelyyn liittyvien toimenpiteiden vaikutuksia yrityksille, kuluttajille ja julkiseen talouteen aluetalouksien tasolla. Tulosten mukaan se voidaan tehdä aluetalousmalleilla, joilla kuvataan ja lasketaan kokonaisvaltaisesti talousjärjestelmässä toisistaan riippuvien vaikutusketjujen muutoksia. Liikennejärjestelmän muutosten suorista käyttäjähyödyistä ja -haitoista seuraa välillisesti laajempia taloudellisia vaikutuksia eri markkinoiden välisen vuorovaikutuksen dynamiikassa. Nämä vaikutukset toteutuvat kasautumiseen, työmarkkinoihin…

Determining the implementation order of a general plan by using a multicriteria method

We describe a real-life application of a new multicriteria method in the context of assisting the decision-making for a general plan in the municipality of Kirkkonummi in Uusimaa, Finland. At the time our group started working on the problem, a proposal for an overall plan had already been completed, but the order in which different regional parts of the plan should be implemented needed to be considered based on the environmental impact assessment (EIA) procedure. The EIA procedure generated a large amount of data about the different impacts of the alternatives. For this group decision making problem we developed the SMAA-3 decision support method which does not require any explicit prefer…

Liikenneinfrastruktuurihankkeiden rakentamisaikaiset vaikutukset työllisyyteen

Hankkeen tavoitteena on ollut määrittää tutkittuun tietoon perustuva viitekehys liikenneinfrastruktuurihankkeiden rakentamisaikaisten työllisyysvaikutusten arviointiin. Liikenneinfrastruktuurihankkeen rakentamisaikainen bruttomääräinen vaikutus työllisyyteen muodostuu suorasta työpanostarpeesta työmaalla ja välillisestä työpanostarpeesta. Välillinen työpanostarve taaksepäin syntyy rakentamisen välituotevalmistuksessa ja välillinen työpanostarve eteenpäin palkkatulojen synnyttämän kulutuskysynnän lisäyksen kautta. Nettotyöllisyysvaikutus tarkoittaa työllisyysasteen muutosta taloudessa. Silloin huomioidaan rakentamisesta johtuvan työvoiman kysynnän syrjäytysvaikutus jo olemassa oleviin työpai…

Locating a Waste Treatment Facility by Multicriteria Analysis

We describe an application of multicriteria decision aid to the location of a waste treatment facility in eastern Finland. In Finland, the Act on Environmental Impact Assessment Procedure requires that when the amount of waste to be dealt with in a facility exceeds 20,000 tons per year, the process of environmental impact assessment (EIA) must be performed. In addition, the opinions of citizens and different interest groups need to be heard. Generally, EIA requires many different factors to be dealt with. Therefore the use of some multicriteria decision aid may be helpful to preserve the information obtained through the EIA in the decision-making process. The alternative locations for the f…

Multicriteria decision support in a technology competition for cleaning polluted soil in Helsinki

Due to expansion of the capital area in Finland, industrial areas are being replanned for residential and commercial use. The soil in these areas is sometimes contaminated, and must therefore be cleaned before building. In spring 1997 the City of Helsinki and the National Technology Agency of Finland declared a contract-based competition for cleaning the polluted soil of the planned Toukolanranta residential area. Nine proposals entered the competition, and the problem was to choose three best candidates for test-cleaning a small part of the region considered. The winner of the test-cleaning phase will get the contract for cleaning the whole area. The proposals were evaluated based on five …

The choice of a solid waste management system using the Electre II decision-aid method

A multicriteria decision-aid method, Electre II, was applied to the real choice process of a solid waste management system in the Uusimaa region, Finland. The criteria used were chosen by a supervision group. The weights of the criteria were defined by the managers of environmental and technical affairs of each municipality in Uusimaa, Finland. The use of the Electre II method leads us to recommend centralized incineration as the best municipal solid waste management system for the planning region. However, the second best alternative, intermediate RDF combustion with intermediate landfilling was finally chosen by the municipalities.

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