Valuation for Sustainable Development – The Role of Multicriteria Evaluation

Abstract

Multicriteria methods were found to be useful tools to support decision-making about complex situations – such as those concerned with sustainable development issues – and to deal with conflicts in a structured and transparent way. Increasingly multicriteria evaluation (MCE) is also seen as a constructive response to the critique of cost-benefit analysis. MCE enables decision-makers to take multiple dimensions of impacts of the considered projects into account without the need for full monetarisation. A great number of multicriteria algorithms are now available. The algorithms differ in fundamental ways. Besides the algorithms also the implementation of the valuation technique is important for the outcome. In order to address issues like uncertainty, multiple legitimate perspectives and the need for learning during the decision process, ecological economists apply MCE mostly by combining the analytical tool with participatory techniques.