Multi-Criteria Decision Making Techniques in Civil Engineering Education for Sustainability

Abstract

In recent times, a great deal of interest has emerged from different sectors of society towards sustainability and sustainable product design. Decision makers are increasingly encouraged to take into consideration the economic, environmental and social dimensions of reality when dealing with problems. Sustainability is of particular importance in the field of civil engineering, where structures are designed that are long lasting and shall cause significant impacts over a long period of time, such as bridges or dams. Consequently, when addressing a structural design, civil engineers shall account for the three dimensions of sustainability, which usually show conflicting perspectives. Multi-criteria methods allow the inclusion of non-monetary aspects into the design process of infrastructure. In the postgraduate course 'Predictive and optimisation models for concrete structures', offered at the Masters in Concrete Engineering of the Universitat Politècnica de València, civil engineering students are taught how to apply such tools within the framework of sustainable design of concrete structures. The present paper conducts a state-of-the-art review of the main multi-criteria decision making methodologies taught in the course in the context of sustainability. Articles are searched in recognized databases, such as SCOPUS and Web of Science. The most significant methods, such as Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), Elimination and Choice Expressing Reality (ELECTRE), Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) or Complex Proportional Assessment (COPRAS) are systematically discussed, identifying the actual trends concerning the use of such methodologies in the field of civil engineering. The review provides a deep insight in the multi criteria techniques that are most frequently used when assessing sustainability of infrastructure designs.

Selection of the Best Method for Underpinning Foundations Using the PROMETHEE II Method

“…Multicriteria methods are considered a powerful tool to help decision makers choose the best sustainable solution for a wide range of civil-engineering projects. Multicriteria analysis using the PROMETHEE II method was previously shown to be a solution worth implementing in the construction field [52][53][54]. The PROMETHEE II method provided an appropriate approach for assessing methods of foundation underpinning.…”

Pedagogy of Rethinking: Teaching Students to Transform Conventional Professional Practices to Sustainable Ones

“…These methods along with other possible contributing factors were analyzed as possible prerequisites for efficient rethinking and quality of project development, using the standard method of multi-criteria evaluation (Aruldoss et al, 2013). The multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) method has been applied in a range of case studies, dealing with the teaching efficiency assessment (Martínez et al, 2018;Agasisti et al 2019;Roszkowska & Filipowicz-Chomko, 2020;Popović et al, 2020). For the modeling purposes within the MCE framework the employment of each factor was ranked from 0 to 1, corresponding to not using and full implementation of a factor.…”

Uptake and Dissemination of Multi-Criteria Decision Support Methods in Civil Engineering—Lessons from the Literature

“…In addition, these areas have a high degree of complexity with large numbers of components or sub-processes to be managed and thus a very large number of possible configurations requiring some automated procedure to seek optimal solutions. Note that Engineering education is included in the list and this category includes a paper on MCDA education for sustainability [40]. The list of top 20 keywords, Table 2, contains only two typical multi-criteria methods (analytic hierarchy process (AHP) or its variations and TOPSIS).…”