Optimal infrastructure selection to boost regional sustainable economy

Abstract

The role of infrastructures in boosting the economic growth of the regions is widely recognized. In many cases, an infrastructure is selected by subjective reasons. Selection of the optimal infrastructure for sustainable economic development of a region should be based on objective and founded reasons, not only economical, but also environmental and social. In this paper is developed such selection through a hybrid method based on Delphi, analytical hierarchy process (AHP), and VIKOR (from Serbian, VIseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje). To do this, a panel of experts assesses both the infrastructures and the drivers for their selection. The method lets us to verify the consistency of answers from experts. In our case, AHP obtains preference values for each infrastructure using the eigenvector method. Meanwhile, the VIKOR method evaluates whether the proposed is the one that best fits the prevailing view, minimizing the regret to the most separate opinions. Thus, for La Costera (Spain), the region under study, this research work concludes that the thematic route is the optimal infrastructure.

Keywords:

• optimal infrastructure
• sustainable economy
• regional economic boost
• Delphi method
• Analytical Hierarchy Process
• VIKOR technique