Planning for an Uncertain Future: Can Multicriteria Analysis Support Better Decision Making in Climate Planning?
Journal of Planning Education and Research, 36 (September 2016), pp. 349-362.
The realities of climate change demand updated approaches and tools to support decision making. In this article, we examine the promise of an emerging tool, multicriteria analysis (MCA), in climate-change planning. We find that MCA has the potential to perform better than cost-benefit analysis and working group approaches in supporting decision-making processes that are more participatory, transparent, comprehensive, rigorous, and scenario-driven. However, in practice, MCA may not achieve all of these effective planning principles, and it is more likely to fall short in cases where planners have limited resources.
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Wagner Faculty