A decision support system for assessing alternative projects for the design of a new road network: methodology and application of a case study

This study aims to offer an applicable evaluation framework for assessing project alternatives by employing different multicriteria evaluation methods as a tool to reduce conflicts in a decision making process. The first part of the paper consists of a brief survey of the great diversity of modern assessment methods that have been developed in recent decades. This helps to provide a perspective for procedural types of decisions in which various qualitative and quantitative aspects are incorporated. The paper initially focuses on three recently developed techniques: Regime analysis, the Analytical Hierarchic Process (AHP) method and the Flag model. It advocates a merger of these methods. In the second part of the paper, the above-mentioned multicriteria methods are applied to a "real-world" case concerning the design of a new road network in the area of the Cilento National Park in Italy.