Prioritizing Sustainable Transport Projects through Multicriteria Group Decision Making: Case Study of Tianjin Binhai New Area, China

Abstract

It is challenging to devise a group decision-making process that supports compromise solutions reflecting diverse stakeholders’ preferences about multiple criteria. This study illustrates how the combination of multicriteria decision analysis and a group decision-making technique can be used to arrive at solutions that are mutually acceptable to multiple stakeholders when selecting sustainable transport projects. The proposed methodology, in which the collective preference is determined based on the aggregation of individual preferences from all stakeholders, is illustrated through a case study of the prioritization of nine prospective transport projects affecting three stakeholder groups (decision-makers, project designers, and system users) in Tianjin Binhai New Area, China. Specifically, the various projects were evaluated for their probable sustainability performance according to 14 criteria. The results show that the proposed methodology can enable transportation managers to achieve an acceptable solution to a complex project-prioritization problem by understanding the different needs and concerns of diverse stakeholders. It is hoped that the present research will serve as a practical tool for infrastructure managers seeking to build consensus, and helping them to assess the degree of consensus among stakeholders at various points in the process, thereby facilitating effective communication and the coordination of decisions.