A decision support system for assessing alternative projects for the design of a new road network : methodology and application of a case study

This study aims to offer an applicable evaluation framework for assessing projectalternatives by employing different Multicriteria Evaluation Methods as a tool to reduce conflicts in a decision making process. The first part of the paper consists of a brief survey of the great diversity of modem assessment methods that have been developed over the last ten years. This helps to provide a perspective for procedural types of decisions in which various qualitative and quantitative aspects are incorporated. This paper initially focuses on three recently developed techniques, viz. Regime analysis, the Analytical Hierarchic Process (AHP) methods and the Flag model. In the second part of the paper, the above mentioned multicriteria methods are applied to a 'real-world' case concerning the design of a new road network in the area of the Cilento National Park in Italy.