Open source environment to define constraints in route planning for GIS-T

Route planning for transportation systems is strongly related to shortest path algorithms, an optimization problem extensively studied in the literature. To find the shortest path in a network one usually assigns weights to each branch to represent the difficulty of taking such branch. The weights construct a linear preference function ordering the variety of alternatives from the most to the least attractive.Postprint (published version

Identification of Public Objectives Related to Agricultural Sector Support

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is a widely debated policy in terms of both its budget and its instruments. In order to serve the citizens of Europe properly, CAP requires optimal identification of the public objectives desired. This paper aims to analyse the relative weights that citizens assign to the various potential objectives of the CAP and to show how these can be used to improve the selection of policy instruments. As a means of identifying social preferences we used the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique on a population sample in Castilla y León (Spain). Results show how the current policy decision process lacks mechanisms capable of identifying social preferences and thus leading to the choice of sub-optimal policies.Common Agricultural Policy, Objectives, Social preferences, AHP, Castilla y León.

Participatory Modelling and Decision Support for Natural Resources Management in Climate Change Research

The ever greater role given to public participation by laws and regulations, in particular in the field of environmental management calls for new operational methods and tools for managers and practitioners. This paper analyses the potentials and the critical limitations of current approaches in the fields of simulation modelling (SM), public participation (PP) and decision analysis (DA), for natural resources management within the context of climate change research. The potential synergies of combining SM, PP and DA into an integrated methodological framework are identified and a methodological proposal is presented, called NetSyMoD (Network Analysis – Creative System Modelling – Decision Support), which aims at facilitating the involvement of stakeholders or experts in policy - or decision-making processes (P/DMP). A generic P/DMP is formalised in NetSyMoD as a sequence of six main phases: (i) Actors analysis; (ii) Problem analysis; (iii) Creative System Modelling; (iv) DSS design; (v) Analysis of Options; and (vi) Action taking and monitoring. Several variants of the NetSyMoD approach have been adapted to different contexts such as integrated water resources management and coastal management, and, recently it has been applied in climate change research projects. Experience has shown that NetSyMoD may be a useful framework for skilled professionals, for guiding the P/DMP, and providing practical solutions to problems encountered in the different phases of the decision/policy making process, in particular when future scenarios or projections have to be considered, such as in the case of developing and selecting adaptation policies. The various applications of NetSyMoD share the same approach for problem analysis and communication within the group of selected actors, based upon the use of creative thinking techniques, the formalisation of human-environment relationships through the DPSIR framework, and the use of multi-criteria analysis through a Decision Support System (DSS) software.Modelling, Public Participation, Natural Resource Management, Policy, Decision-Making, Governance, DSS

Job Selection Preferences Of Business Students

To assess the job selection preferences of business students, two hundred forty one undergraduate and MBA students participated in a survey evaluating the importance of 20 job attributes. Overall, the students rated growth potential, benefits package, job responsibility and variety as the most important attributes when pursuing an employment opportunity.  The results indicate that graduate business students are more concerned with work culture, flexibility and ease of commute and less concerned with company recognition compared to undergraduates.  The findings also show that work culture seems to be especially relevant to female MBA students, while geographical location seems to be least relevant to male MBA students.  Our results suggest that, to be effective with their recruitment efforts, employers and placement professionals must take into account both key desirable job attributes and the unique needs of their targeted business student sub-populations.&nbsp

Walking the Middle Path: How Medium Trade-Off Exposure Leads to Higher Consumer Satisfaction in Recommender Agents

Recommender Agents (RAs) facilitate consumers’ online purchase decisions for complex, multi-attribute products. As not all combinations of attribute levels can be obtained, users are forced into trade-offs. The exposure of trade-offs in a RA has been found to affect consumers’ perceptions. However, little is known about how different preference elicitation methods in RAs affect consumers by varying degrees of trade-off exposure. We propose a research model that investigates how different levels of trade-off exposure cognitively and affectively influence consumers’ satisfaction with RAs. We operationalize these levels in three different RA types and test our hypotheses in a laboratory experiment with 116 participants. Our results indicate that with increasing tradeoff exposure, perceived enjoyment and perceived control follow an inverted U-shaped relationship. Hence, RAs using preference elicitation methods with medium trade-off exposure yield highest consumer satisfaction. This contributes to the understanding of trade-offs in RAs and provides valuable implications toe-commerce practitioners

Environmental Policy Aid Under Uncertainty

Recent emphasis on uncertainty in environmental decision making reflects numerous changes in environmental science and policy making over the past few decades. Firstly, environmental policy problems increasingly involve large, interconnected and complex social choices. For example, climate change, ozone depletion, biodiversity loss, genetically-engineered crops, environment-related diseases and health risks involve large scale, long-term impacts, whose precise causes and consequences are often poorly understood. Given these uncertainties and the risk of irreversible environmental changes, different perspectives about the nature, policy implications, or even the existence of a problem, are inevitable (Rittel and Webber, 1973; Sarewitz, 2004)

A Comparison Of Evaluation Techniques For Decision Analysis Involving Large Attribute Sets

This study investigates the effectiveness of two multi-attribute evaluation techniques under conditions of high information load that is caused by large attribute sets.  One hundred and sixty-five respondents were randomly assigned to two groups: the first one used a holistic, point allocation-based method to evaluate a list of 20 job attributes, while the second employed a triad-based technique that decomposed the evaluation task. The results suggest that the decomposed method produced more reliable results and was deemed easier to use, even though it took longer to complete the task

A group decision-making methodology with incomplete individual beliefs applied to e-Democracy

We consider the situation where there are several alternatives for investing a quantity of money to achieve a set of objectives. The choice of which alternative to apply depends on how citizens and political representatives perceive that such objectives should be achieved. All citizens with the right to vote can express their preferences in the decision-making process. These preferences may be incomplete. Political representatives represent the citizens who have not taken part in the decision-making process. The weight corresponding to political representatives depends on the number of citizens that have intervened in the decision-making process. The methodology we propose needs the participants to specify for each alternative how they rate the different attributes and the relative importance of attributes. On the basis of this information an expected utility interval is output for each alternative. To do this, an evidential reasoning approach is applied. This approach improves the insightfulness and rationality of the decision-making process using a belief decision matrix for problem modeling and the Dempster?Shafer theory of evidence for attribute aggregation. Finally, we propose using the distances of each expected utility interval from the maximum and the minimum utilities to rank the alternative set. The basic idea is that an alternative is ranked first if its distance to the maximum utility is the smallest, and its distance to the minimum utility is the greatest. If only one of these conditions is satisfied, a distance ratio is then used

A multi-criteria approach to dry port location in developing economies with application to Vietnam

This paper presents a conceptual framework for the inclusion of multiple criteria in the evaluation of dry port location in developing countries from a multiple stakeholder perspective. We present the framework in four steps. The first step encompasses preliminary research to filter the alternative locations for dry port development. In the second step, the stakeholders are clustered in three groups: dry port users, dry port service providers and the wider community. Then, we present the sub-criteria related to dry port location including the associated measuring methods. The third step includes an explanation on the methods used for weighing these criteria and sub-criteria. A multicriteria analysis is carried out in the final step. We apply the methodological framework to Vietnam. The location of a new dry port project in Vinh Phuc province will be evaluated against two existing inland clearance depots (ICD) in Lao Cai and Phu Tho province