A meaningful contribution to the evaluation of heterogeneous public investments is described in this paper. The proposed methodology provides a step towards sustainable urban planning in which decisions are taken according to clear, consistent and transparent criteria assisted by the MIVES multi-criteria analysis framework. The MIVES methodology combines Multi-criteria Decision Making (MCDM) and Multi-Attribute Utility Theory (MAUT), incorporating the value function (VF) concept and assigning weights through the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). First, a homogenization coefficient is calculated to develop the Prioritization Index for Heterogeneous Urban Investments (PIHUI), so that non-homogenous alternatives may be comparable. This coefficient measures the need of society to invest in each public project through the consideration of its contribution to the regional balance, the scope of its investment, the evaluation of the current situation and the values of the city. Then, the MIVES multi-criteria framework is used to evaluate the degree to which each investment would contribute to sustainable development. Different economic, environmental and social aspects were considered through a decision framework, constructed with the 3 aforementioned requirements, 5 criteria and 8 indicators. The case study conducted for the Ecology, Urban Planning and Mobility Area of Barcelona municipal council is presented in this paper, showing how this method performs accurate, consistent, and repeatable evaluations.

Smart cities can use business models to evaluate what value they offer citizens by integrating ICT into their infrastructure and services. The article introduces the concept of the 'city business model' and proposes a practical framework for analysing it. The City Model Canvas (CMC)-based on the Business Model Canvas for firms-shows the elements that city councils should consider during the design, delivery and assessment of smart services, including the smart service's expected economic, environmental and social impacts. An example of how the CMC was used to design an ICT platform in Bristol shows its utility as a planning tool.

Maintenance management of the hydraulic structures requires the selection of the most necessary maintenance intervention to ensure their proper operation and structural safety. Given the characteristics of these structures, many types of damage may appear, so it is not easy to take a decision. The purpose of this paper is to present the Prioritization Index for the Management of Hydraulic Structures (PIMHS), a multi-criteria decision-making system based on the three axioms of sustainability (social, environmental and economic), which orders and prioritizes non-similar maintenance investments in hydraulic structures. The results obtained show that PIMHS can be used by decision-makers to prioritize, in hydraulic structures, all kind of maintenance interventions where the damages cannot lead to dam break.

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Discarded polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles have damaged our ecosystem. Problems of marine fauna conservation and land fertility have been related to the disposal of these materials. Recycled fibre is an opportunity to reduce the levels of waste in the world and increase the mechanical performance of the concrete. PET as concrete reinforcement has demonstrated ductility and post-cracking strength. However, its performance could be optimized. This study considers a statistical-experimental analysis to evaluate recycled PET fibre reinforced concrete with various fibre dose and aspect ratio. 120 samples were experimented under workability, compressive, flexural, and splitting tensile tests. The results pointed out that the fibre dose has more influence on the responses than its fibre aspect ratio, with statistical relation on the tensional toughness, equivalent flexural strength ratio, volumetric weight, and the number of fibres. Moreover, the fibre aspect ratio has a statistical impact on the tensional toughness. In general, the data indicates that the optimal recycled PET fibre reinforced concrete generates a superior performance than control samples, with an improvement similar to those reinforced with virgin fibres.

Infrastructure construction, one of the biggest driving forces of the economy nowadays, requires a huge analysis and clear transparency to decide what projects have to be executed with the few resources available. With the aim to provide the public administrations a tool with which they can make their decisions easier, the Sustainability Index of Infrastructure Projects (SIIP) has been defined, with a multi-criteria decision system called MIVES, in order to classify non-uniform investments. This index evaluates, in two inseparable stages, the contribution to the sustainable development of each infrastructure project, analyzing its social, environmental and economic impact. The result of the SIIP allows to decide the order with which projects will be prioritized. The case of study developed proves the adaptability and utility of this tool for the ordinary budget management.

Narrow trenches are a common technique for the installation of utility pipelines of small diameter. The excavated soil is not always appropriate as landfill and, in those cases, an appropriate soil from somewhere else (ex. a borrow pit or another construction site) should be used instead (classical solution, CS). Another common solution is to use a controlled low-strength (cementitious) material (CLSM) as backfill instead of compacted soil. However, both solutions lead to increased raw material consumption, waste generation, need for transportation, and CO2 emissions. In an attempt to address these issues, researchers developed an eco-trench (ECO) that reuses the excavated soil of narrow trenches to produce a controlled low-strength material to be used as landfill. Although technically viable, the sustainability of this solution versus the traditional solution has not been properly addressed. Hence, this paper aims to develop a method for the sustainability assessment of trenches. The Sustainability Index of Trenches (SIT), based on the MIVES decision-making method, enables the assessment and prioritisation of different types of trenches according to sustainability criteria. Criteria, indicators, weights and value functions were specifically defined based on seminars with experts in the field of utility services and construction. A case study was performed in which four types of trenches (CS, CS with recycling CS+R, CLSM and ECO) were assessed and prioritised according to SIT. ECO resulted in the most sustainable alternative with a SIT of 0.80 out of 1 followed by CS+R, CS and CLSM with SITs of 0.63, 0.40 and 0.38 respectively. The sensitivity analysis showed consistent results in different scenarios. These findings demonstrate the capability and reliability of SIT as a decision-making tool for the 2 evaluation of the sustainability of different construction processes for trenches and the prioritisation of the most suitable solution for different situations.

Becoming a smart city is one of the top priorities in the urban agenda of many European cities. Among the various strategies in the transition path, local governments seek to bring innovation to their cities by encouraging multinational enterprises to deploy their green energy services and products in their municipalities. Knowing how to attract these enterprises implies that political leaders understand the multi-criteria decision problem that the energy sector enterprises face when deciding whether to expand to one city or another. To this end, the purpose of this study is to design a new manageable and controllable framework oriented to European cities’ public managers, based on the assessment of criteria and sub-criteria governing the strategic location decision made by these enterprises. A decision support framework is developed based on the AHP technique combined with an extended version of the hesitant fuzzy linguistic TOPSIS method. The main results indicate the higher relative importance of government policies, such as degree of transparency or bureaucracy level, as compared to market conditions or economic aspects of the city’s host country. These results can be great assets to current European leaders, they show the feasibility of the method and open up the possibility to replicate the proposed framework to other sectors or geographical areas.