Multiple criteria decision analysis and geographic information systems

Abstract

This chapter focuses on a review of Geographic Information Systembased Multicriteria Decision Analysis (GIS-MCDA). These two distinctive areas of research can benefit from each other. On the one hand, GIS techniques and procedures have an important role to play in analyzing spatial decision problems. Indeed, GIS is often recognized as a spatial decision support system. On the other hand, MCDA provides a rich collection of techniques and procedures for structuring decision problems, designing, evaluating, and prioritizing alternative decisions. At the most rudimentary level, GIS-MCDA can be thought of as a process that transforms and combines geographical (spatial) data and value judgments (the decision maker’s preferences) to obtain information for decision making. It is in the context of the synergetic capabilities of GIS and MCDA that one can see the benefit for advancing theoretical and applied research on GIS-MCDA. The chapter is structured into seven sections. The introductory section outlines the synergetic capabilities of GIS and MCDA. Subsequently, the chapter provides an introduction to the basic concepts of GIS, a historical perspective of GIS-MCDA, and a survey of the GIS-MCDA literature. The following section focuses on the MCDA functions in GIS-based analysis and Multicriteria Spatial Decision Support System (MC-SDSS). The concluding section presents the challenges and prospects for advancing GIS-MCDA.