Maria Cerreta

Multidimensional spatial decision-making process: local shared values in action

This paper is about developing a methodological framework for a multidimensional spatial decision-making process oriented to the identification of a territorial transformation strategy reflecting shared values. Through the empirical investigation in an operative case study, the Avellino-Rocchetta S. Antonio railway line, in the South of Italy, an integrated evaluative approach implemented in a SDSS can make us go beyond space and hierarchical limits. Taking into account the different multidimensional components of decision-making process, making clear the weights and recognizing the different priorities, fit and situated strategies have been identified, according to an interactive and dynamic dialogue among expertise and local communities.

A Complex Values Map of Marginal Urban Landscapes: An Experiment in Naples (Italy)

The paper seeks to highlight how the character and values of marginal landscapes can be considered examples of the “third landscape†and how they can enable the mapping of tangible and intangible change (and its relative effects) through the selection of appropriate spatial indicators. A Dynamic Spatial Decision Support System was constructed to help identify the complex values characterizing a selected area in Naples’ marginal urban landscape. The System consists of a set of selected indicators that represent the area’s distinguishing characteristics with specific focus on its critical and potential factors. The formulation of spatial indicators helps identify the ecological, socio-economic and urban characteristics of the case-study area, along with their historic evolution over a specific time period. Time History Analysis (THA) enables the identification of permanent elements and transformations along with the relationships among the various urban landscape components over time. The synergistic interaction between the appropriately structured Geographic Information System (GIS) and the multi-criteria Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method help to generate a complex values map of the analyzed landscape to support the definition and location of strategic actions.

Thinking Through Complex Values

This chapter explores how ‘thinking through complex values’ can support the structuring of integrated decision-making by orienting it towards the elaboration of strategic goals and actions able to create new values from the plurality of knowledge and the specificity of the context. With its normative, spatial, temporal, cultural, social and cognitive features, the context becomes the frame in which planning responses and behaviours can be shaped.

A landscape complex values map: integration among soft values and hard values in a spatial decision support system

The paper develops a Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) for the identification and evaluation of the landscape complexity for the Massa Lubrense territory, in the South of Italy. Through the elaboration of a selection of spatial indicators and the combination of GIS and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method, it has been defined a decision-making process for the construction of a map of complex values, soft and hard values, that characterize the landscape of Massa Lubrense. The paper explores the potential of a Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) in the field of land-use planning, recognizing different weights and priorities according to a complex definition of the landscape and its values.

Valuing Cultural Landscape Services: A Multidimensional and Multi-group SDSS for Scenario Simulations

The purpose of this paper is to define a methodological proposal towards a Spatial Decision Support System for strategic planning, based on the evaluation of Cultural Landscape Services (CLS). A combination of multidimensional evaluation techniques, multi-group analysis and Geographic Information Systems is applied to the simulation of landscape enhancement scenarios in the “National Park of Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni”, in order to explore the effectiveness and helpfulness of the evaluation of CLS in structuring both hierarchic and networking relationships among the municipalities comprised in the study area.

Integrated Spatial Assessment (ISA): A Multi-Methodological Approach for Planning Choices

In decision-making processes for urban planning and design, evaluation can be considered a relevant tool to build choices, to recognize values, interests and needs, and to explore the different aspects that can influence decisions. Evaluation can be considered a process to integrate approaches, methods and models, able to support the different needs of the decision-making process itself. According to Trochim and Donnelly (2006), it is possible to define a planning-evaluation cycle with various phases requested by both planners and evaluators. The first phase of such a cycle, the so-called planning phase, is designed in order to elaborate a set of potential actions, programs, or technologies, and select the best ones for implementation. The main stages are related to (1) the formulation of the problem, issue, or concern; (2) the broad conceptualization of the main alternatives to be considered; (3) the detailing of these alternatives and their potential implications; (4) the evaluation of the alternatives and the selection of the preferable one; and (5) the implementation of the selected alternative. These stages are considered inherent to planning, but they need a relevant evaluation work, useful in conceptualization and detailing, and in assessing alternatives and making a choice of the preferable one. The evaluation phase also involves a sequence of stages that includes: (1) the formulation of the major goals and objectives; (2) the conceptualization and operationalization of the major components of the evaluation (program, participants, setting, criteria, measures, etc.); (3) the design of the evaluation, detailing how these components will be coordinated; the analysis of the information, both qualitative and quantitative; and (4) the utilization of the evaluation results. Indeed, evaluation is intrinsic to all types of decisionmaking and can take different meanings and roles within decision-making processes, especially if it is related to spatial planning (Alexander, 2006). ”Evaluation in planning” or ”evaluation within planning” seems to better interpret the concept of planning-evaluation proposed by Lichfield (1996) where the binomial name makes explicit the close interaction and reciprocal framing of evaluation and planning: evaluation is conceived as deeply embedded in planning, affecting planning, and evolving with it (Cerreta, 2010). Indeed, the evolution of evaluation methods reflects their evolving relationship with the planning process and the way in which they interact with the diversity and multiplicity of domains and values. To identify an analytic and evaluative structure able to integrate different purposes and multidimensional values within the decision-making processes means to

Complex Values-Based Approach for Multidimensional Evaluation of Landscape

The several meanings that landscape takes in all scientific studies and in the common speech highlight the complexity of a concept that finds in the richness of its dimensions the understanding key and the interpreting matrix for actions aimed at local sustainable development. A new concept of landscape identifies the relationships between the various points of view and different interpretive approaches, overcoming the consideration of territory as a physical-geometrical reality at the service of economic aspects. The paper, starting from the evolution of the landscape’s concept, focuses on the management of its complexity in the transformation processes included in the dynamic context of landscape’s cultural values and in development strategies designed to support and strengthen these values. It has been structured a multidimensional methodological framework oriented to the evaluation of landscape cultural values, tested in National Park of Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni (Italy).

Non-compensatory composite indicators for the evaluation of urban planning policy: The Land-Use Policy Efficiency Index (LUPEI)

Abstract In this research paper, we define and test an ELECTRE III-based approach to the construction of non-compensatory composite indicators; these indicators are used for the evaluation of environmental and social performances of urban and regional planning policies. We tested the methodology for the construction of the Land-Use Policy Efficiency Index (LUPEI) on the municipal scale applied to a sample of municipalities in the Apulia Region (Southern Italy). Based on the literature review concerning composite indicators, we found that linear aggregation rules are the most widely applied aggregation procedures for composite indicators. However, their applicability depends on a set of strong theoretical and operational conditions. If these conditions do not hold, then other aggregation and weighting procedures must be applied to construct the composite indicators. We tested the ELECTRE III via a fruitful interaction with three experts who were participating in a focus group. We found that composite indicators are powerful tools when it comes to the assessment of multidimensional planning issues. Since each sub-indicator provides different information and responds to different goals, rankings and assessment based on mono-indicator frameworks can lead to incomplete or even biased results that do not consider an integrated approach to land-use policy efficiency. Moreover, both experts and decision-makers appreciated the role of composite indicators in increasing knowledge and providing deeper insights into complex phenomena in the domains of urban and regional planning.

The Multidimensional Assessment of Land Take and Soil Sealing

In 2006 European Commission stated that soil, fairly recognisable as an ecosystem structure, can be considered essentially as a non-renewable resource, thus triggering both studies for the assessment of land take phenomenon and actions for its mitigation and reduction. In last two decades, a deeper and ecosystem approach to land-use policies targeted to the sustainable development enabled a closer understanding of the complexity of urban dynamics leading to the necessity of multidimensional and integrated approaches for the assessment of the use of resources. The paper presents a multi-dimensional approach to evaluate the phenomenon of land take and soil sealing implemented on a sample of municipalities in Apulia Region, in Southern Italy. The construction of a composite indicator for comparative qualitative and quantitative measurement of land take and soil sealing among the municipalities is aimed at a better evaluation of future urbanisation scenarios and at a monitoring process of urban growth.

A Knowledge-Based Approach for the Implementation of a SDSS in the Partenio Regional Park (Italy)

The paper recommends a methodology for data gathering and processing through the spatial analysis techniques and the combinatorial multi-criteria procedure of Weighted Linear Combination (WLC). The purpose concerns the spatial problem structuring in a complex decisional context lacking in the geographical dataset. The processing of data and information provided by VGIs and Open Systems is crucial for the enrichment of spatial datasets in these circumstances, but it is advisable to make attention about the data reliability and the known problems of the geographic dataset, i.e. Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP). The method was tested with the case study of 27 Municipalities around the Partenio Regional Park, in the South of Italy. Within the SDSS, the multidimensional landscape’s indicators were combined with data gathering on the field, in order to build an evolving informative system. A multidimensional approach, focused on the recognition of environmental, social, economic and cultural resources, was chosen providing some strategies of enhancement for the overviewed landscape of the Park. The evaluation of the policy and actions for the examined regions generated scenario-maps through multi-criteria procedures and GIS tools.