Assessing Different Possibilities for the Reuse of an Open‐pit Quarry Using the Choquet Integral

Abstract

Multiple criteria decision analysis is a valuable and increasingly widely-used tool to support decision-making processes where there is a choice to be made between different options. This approach is particularly useful in the context of sustainability assessment where a complex and interconnected range of environmental, social and economic issues must be taken into consideration and where objectives are often competing.It has been generally agreed that when dealing with sustainability issues, neither an economic reductionism nor an ecological one is possible. Because in general, economic sustainability has an ecological cost, and because ecological sustainability has an economic cost, an integrative framework such as multicriteria evaluation is needed for tackling sustainability issues properly. In this sense, the analysis of the possible interactions among the elements is of particular importance for assessing the sustainability of a certain transformation.Within this context, a very important role is played by the 'non-additive measurement theory', that makes use of the Choquet integral. This last represents the generalization of the weighted average method and provides a computational structure for aggregating information, taking into account interactivity between criteria.The present paper proposes a multicriteria approach that is able to support decision makers in the choice of the best solution for the reuse of an abandoned open-pit quarry. Five alternative options have been compared based on different indicators that have been aggregated using the Choquet integral in order to obtain the global sustainability level of each solution and to better highlight the trade-offs between the aspects involved in the decision.

On the Choquet multiple criteria preference aggregation model: Theoretical and practical insights from a real-world application

“…From the environmental point of view, the area under analysis represents both a territorial weakness, due to its abandoned state which has caused uncontrolled vegetation growth and water-filled pits, and an opportunity, due to it being part of the Provincial ecological system of environmentally valuable sites. Five alternative projects (hereafter called actions) for the requalification of the area have been identified and discussed by the Municipal Authority (for more details see Bottero et al, 2014).…”

“…The data concerning the actions as well as the performance criteria and their interaction effects come from two previous investigations carried out by the authors involved in the present research. The first study by Bottero et al (2014) proposed the use of the Choquet integral to compare the alternative re-use actions for the abandoned quarry taking into account synergies (mutual-strengthening) and redundancies (mutual-weakening) among criteria. The second study, recently carried out by Bottero et al (2015), adopted an extension of the Electre III method proposed by Figueira et al (2009) to model multiple interaction effects between criteria and tested it using the abandoned quarry re-qualification problem.…”

An Analytic Network Process (ANP)-Based Approach for Investigating Alternative Planning Scenarios of Mining Activities in Piedmont Region

“…environmental assessments, urban and territorial planning, being able to guide the decision-making process for achieving common planning goals, by considering multidimensional aspects and different points of view. The MCDA counts many applications that carried promising outcomes for environmental and social challenges [ 19 , 20 ] regeneration of downgraded industrial areas [ 21 ] strategies for net-zero energy districts [ 22 ] landscape ecology and economics [ 23 ] urban resilience [ 24 ], urban development and design processes [ 25 ].…”

Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis for Evaluating Transitional and Post-Mining Options—An Innovative Perspective from the EIT ReviRIS Project

“…Some studies define PMLU or mine reclamation criteria differently depending on the study's approach and the stakeholders involved. There are two main ways of organizing criteria: (i) in a hierarchy with attributes given to sub-levels of each criterion [4,9,10] or (ii) non-hierarchical [11][12][13] without sub-levels of criteria. The first one divides a complex problem into its main characteristics, the criteria, and enables the decision-maker to assess only one of those characteristics at each time.…”