The multi-actor multi-criteria analysis in action for sustainable urban mobility decisions: the case of Leuven

Abstract

Urban mobility strategy-making usually involves a large number of stakeholders with diverse objectives. Therefore, participatory decision-making is a time-consuming and resource-intensive process. This paper discusses how the multi-actor multi-criteria analysis (MAMCA) methodology complemented with an electronic group decision support system (GDSS) can contribute to a well-structured decision-making process to come to a commonly supported mobility policy. The proposed approach is demonstrated through a workshop in Leuven, Belgium where four scenarios to improve mobility in the city centre were evaluated based on the preferences of 34 stakeholders. Our findings show that criteria weighting, the set-up of the evaluation matrix, the ranking of alternatives and implementation can be enhanced with our approach. The proposed workshop setting provides an opportunity for stakeholders to interactively weight and evaluate scenarios in an online software tool, while interacting with each other in a workshop setting. Further improvements of the process in terms of finding a compromise are also proposed.