The role of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis in a DEcision Support sYstem for REhabilitation of contaminated sites (the DESYRE software)

The rehabilitation of contaminated sites involves several considerations in terms of environmental, technological and socio-economic aspects. A decision support system becomes therefore necessary in order to manage problem complexity and to define effective rehabilitation interventions. DESYRE (Decision Support sYstem for Rehabilitation of contaminated sites) is a software system which integrates risk assessment with socio-economic analysis and technological assessment in order to provide decision-makers with different remediation scenarios to be evaluated. The structure of the system allows a subsequent analysis, from socioeconomic analysis and site characterization, to risk assessment before and after remediation technologies selection, until the definition of remediation scenarios. The system integrates several analytical tools, such as geostatistics, Fuzzy logic, risk assessment and geographical information systems (GIS). The present paper focuses on the role of the Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), which represents the core of the DSS. In the DESYRE framework, MCDA is applied for the definition of the pool of the suitable remediation technologies. The analytic hierarchy process is applied to rank technologies and develop alternative remediation scenarios. The scenarios are described by a set of indices which can be aggregated by decision makers to rank alternative options. Future research developments suggest the MCDA application also for the evaluation of the remediation scenarios by different stakeholders, in a Group Decision Making (GDM) context.