Bryan H. Massam

Quality of life: public planning and private living

Abstract The search for meaningful definitions and ways to measure and describe the quality of life (QOL) is the focus of this paper. It is argued that planners need to pay close attention to the concept of QOL in order to assess the effects of plans and projects on places and lives of all citizens. The linkages between QOL and the concept of sustainability are explored. A review of a wide variety of literature on QOL is presented and a discussion of the relationships between QOL and the public good. An overview and critique of the variety of indicators used to measure QOL is offered with example of specific projects. A number of case studies are reviewed and particular attention is placed on a set of six recent initiatives in Canada to define and measure QOL. A detailed case study on the perceived QOL of residents in three towns near to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico is presented as part of a larger project on the effects of tourism on the QOL of residents in small communities near to international tourist resorts. A description of the use of multi-criteria techniques for analyzing data on QOL is presented as part of the Puerto Vallarta project.

The location of waste transfer stations in Ashdod, Israel, using a multi-criteria decision support system

Abstract The search for appropriate methods for the safe and acceptable management of waste is a pressing problem facing many governments. This paper focusses on the use of a computer-based decision support system (DSS) called the Decision Analysis System (DAS) for tackling the specific problem of identifying sites for waste transfer stations. After a general discussion on DSS the details of DAS are explained, noting that it is based, first, on a set of four multi-criteria classification techniques and, second, on the analysis of preference and opinions of decision-makers and analysts. To illustrate the use of DAS an application to an empirical set of data for the town of Ashdod in Israel is used. The specific location problem is to select two sites from a set of eight feasible ones using information on a set of 17 criteria which embrace ecological, political, transportation, economic and spatial impacts. The results from the DAS analysis are compared with those produced by a simple weighted arithmetic procedure. This paper also includes recommendations for sensitivity analysis and the analysis of preferences of two waste management planners. Finally, the overall utility of DSS for improving the quality of public debate on waste management problems is assessed.

Methods for comparing policies using multiple criteria: an urban example

This paper looks at a variety of methods that can be used in evaluating a set of alternate policies using multiple criteria. The methods examined are the structural mapping of indifferences, utility values, lexicographic ordering, factor analysis, concordance analysis and multidimension scaling. Each method is tested using hypothetical data for a problem in which alternative policies are proposed for allocating monies to housing and health projects in a town. The aim is to try to reveal as objectively as possible, a set of preferred alternatives from which one can be chosen in the political decision-making process. After describing and testing the methods individually, they are compared both on the basis of their results and on the principles involved in their approach. Conclusions about the validity of each method are given, and it is emphasized that all methods should only be used as aids in the choice of an optimal policy.

THE CLASSIFICATION OF CITIES IN SHANDONG PROVINCE, CHINA, USING A COMPUTER-BASED DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM

China has been experiencing rapid urban growth since the beginning of the 1980s. This new trend of development, coupled with limited resources, has prompted planners to generate and evaluate different strategies for regulating urban growth at the national and regional levels. This paper offers an approach to classify urban places by hypothesising alternative planning scenarios. It introduces and demonstrates a computer-based decision support system QDSS) to tackle this problem. We argue that the computer-based DSS will improve the quality of planning in that it organizes the analysis in a systematic and replicable fashion, allowing different scenarios to be evaluated and compared, though the immediate outcomes using DSS cannot be treated as ‘the answers’ in themselves.

A methodological study of need assessment : the spatial allocation of resources for day care in Ontario

The focus of this paper is on some methodological questions concerning the determination of need for a social service. Specifically, I will apply four different technical procedures for analyzing the relative importance of a set of five indicators which relate to the need for daycare facilities in Ontario. The procedures include two pairwise comparison techniques, a simple ranking method, and Metfessel point allocation. A critique of the utility of each will be offered and recommendations made to help in the collection and analysis of data to assist in the formulation of public policy on matters relating to the analysis of indicators of need with a view to using them for the allocation of resources. One of the principles enunciated in a recent report on day care by the Ontario Ministry of Social and Community Services (1987) is the explicit statement that: “services must respond to individual, cultural, and regional needs.” It is hoped that this study will contribute to the realization of this principle. Consider a region that is divided into subregions and for each of the latter data relating to several indicators of need for a social service are available. Attempts to develop formal procedures for handling these data with a view to determining a single measure of need for each subregion have been made by Stevens (1989) and Skelton (1990), among others. Much of their work has focussed on the search for weights for the indicators so that scores for each indicator for each subregion can be combined in a linear model to derive an overall index of need for each subregion. The allocation of resources, usually financial, among the subregions is then determined on the basis of the need index for each subregion. The adoption of this overall strategy for allocating resources is based on the view that the methodology is sound and any technical procedures that are used can be scrutinized publicly, and hence decisions regarding the use of public monies are made in a way that is clearly accountable and repeat-