Rank Preservation and Reversal in Decision Making

There are numerous real life examples done by many people which show that the alternatives of a decision sometimes can reverse their original rank order when new alternatives are added or old ones deleted and without bringing in new criteria. There is no mathematical theorem which proves that rank must always be preserved and there cannot be because of real life and hypothetical counter examples in decision making methods. Rank preservation came to be accepted as the standard because of techniques that could only rate alternatives one at a time treating them as independent. Thus an alternative receives a score and it will not change when other alternatives are added or deleted. All methods that only rate alternatives one at a time, thus always preserving rank, may not lead to the right decision; even if they may be right in certain areas of application. In reality, to determine how good an alternative is on an intangible criterion needs experience and knowledge about other alternatives and hence in their evaluation, the alternatives cannot be completely considered as independent of one another

Los conflictos y su resolución

El conflicto es un estado natural de la existencia humana. Aun cuando los conflictos parecen desagradables, nunca van a desaparecer del todo debido a los distintos condicionamientos, gustos y disgustos y pertenencias de la gente. Los humanos, criaturas capaces de razonar, pueden aprender a manejar los conflictos en forma sis- témica y racional, al igual que aprenden a vivir en una sociedad civilizada con sus normas de buen comporta-miento y cortesía. La mayor dificultad en la resolución de conflictos está representada en la forma de negociar los intangibles: ¿cuánto de esto frente a cuánto de aquello?, cuando esto y aquello carecen de mediciones.  El “proceso jerárquico analítico” es un criterio muy utilizado en la toma de decisiones, en planeamiento y, en menor medida, en la solución de conflictos debido a la naturaleza emocional del problema. Se ha aplicado a numerosos conflictos y en realidad a pocos en la práctica. Este breve comentario muestra un esbozo de ideas sobre la resolución de conflictos con el AHP

Hierarchon vol. 2: a dictionary of AHP hierarchies

Researchers have been continually developing ways and means to improve quality in decision making. The success of a methodology is judged by its acceptability by the decision makers. In this context, it is beyond any argument that AHP has been massively successful. Readers of this volume will see, once again, that AHP has been applied in widely diverse areas. However, there are many more applications of AHP in other areas that are not reported here. We also don’t claim that the set of applications of AHP in the reported areas is exhaustive; it is far from complete. In fact, it will not be possible to capture all the real-world applications of AHP even by publishing many volumes of this kind. We hope that the readers will find the present compilation useful

Rethinking Design and Urban Planning for the Cities of the Future

Growth of urban areas and abandonment of rural areas are phenomena that increase quickly. The main consequences of urbanization are pollution, consumption of resources and energy, waste dumps, and junk yards. These aspects require a better planning and design of European urban metropolitan areas, considering benefits, opportunities, costs and risks (B.O.C.R.), derivable by urban transformations and available resources. The paper consists of five parts. The first part contains some reflections on consequences of urban sprawl. In the second part, some possible kinds of cities are discussed (sustainable city, smart city, and compact city). The third part briefly describes a multicriteria decision-making approach known as the ‘analytic hierarchy process’ to deal with complex decisions. In the fourth part, alternative city models are analyzed (compact city, elevated city, green house city, and water city). Finally, in the fifth part, the criteria selected for the planning and design of the alternative city models are used for the prioritization of some European cities

A structured scientific solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict: the analytic hierarchy process approach

While the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has raged for decades, in all of its ramifications there has never been a totally structured or scientific approach to the conflict with all of its details. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) approaches the problem along these lines. There are a plethora of reasons why the traditional face to face negotiations have broken down over the years. This paper identifies a significant number of those impediments and indicates how the AHP can productively address them. A summary of the highlights of the AHP approach precedes how it has been applied to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. To date, the participants, significant members of both communities, have derived and agreed upon a solution that includes all the major issues, except for the refugee problem. That problem is currently being worked on, but will take an extended period because of the unique factors involved. What has been provided is an agreed upon solution to virtually all of the issues impeding past negotiations, including borders, settlements, the status of Jerusalem, the Holy Places, security and expectations of each side

The sweet spot in sustainability: a framework for corporate assessment in sugar manufacturing

The assessment of corporate sustainability has become an increasingly important topic, both within academia and in industry. For manufacturing companies to conform to their commitments to sustainable development, a standard and reliable measurement framework is required. There is, however, a lack of sector-specific and empirical research in many areas, including the sugar industry. This paper presents an empirically developed framework for the assessment of corporate sustainability within the Thai sugar industry. Multiple case studies were conducted, and a survey using questionnaires was also employed to enhance the power of generalisation. The developed framework is an accurate and reliable measurement instrument of corporate sustainability, and guidelines to assess qualitative criteria are put forward. The proposed framework can be used for a company’s self-assessment and for guiding practitioners in performance improvement and policy decision-maki

Decision-Making Ontology for Information System Engineering

International audienceInformation Systems (IS) engineering (ISE) processes contain steps where decisions must be made. Moreover, the growing role of IS in organizations involves requirements for ISE such as quality, cost and time. Considering these aspects implies that the number of researches dealing with decision-making (DM) in ISE increasingly grows. As DM becomes widespread in the ISE field, it is necessary to build a representation, shared between researchers and practitioners, of DM concepts and their relations with DM problems in ISE. In this paper, we present a DM ontology which aims at formalizing DM knowledge. Its goal is to enhance DM and to support DM activities in ISE. This ontology is illustrated within the requirements engineering field

UTILIZAÇÃO DE SIG E ANÁLISE MULTICRITÉRIO PARA SELEÇÃO DE ÁREAS COM POTENCIAL PARA A CONSTRUÇÃO DE UNIVERSIDADES E LOTEAMENTOS UNIVERSITÁRIOS

Resumo:A integração de sistemas de informação geográfica com os métodos de decisão multicritério, vem proporcionando inúmeros benefícios para a resolução de problemas de planejamento urbano. Nesse sentido este trabalho apresenta a metodologia utilizada na avaliação e seleção de áreas para a implantação de uma universidade e de um loteamento universitário no município de Patos de Minas - MG. Foram encontrados um local para o loteamento com área de 25,83 ha, e um para a universidade com uma área de 31,47 ha, ambos com risco médio e alta compensação. Os resultados obtidos revelam que o uso da ferramenta SIG associada a análise multicritério são eficientes na escolha de locais para a implantação de empreendimentos que causarão impactos no ambiente a ser instalad