Experiences of stakeholder participation in multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) processes for water infrastructure

Abstract

The process of multi-criteria decision analysis is commonly utilized in planning processes for technical infrastructure. This includes water infrastructure, which is currently impacted by global changes in environmental conditions. Consequentially, technical and conceptual options have been developed with the focus on sustainability by closing water and material cycles. The inclusion of stakeholder perspectives in the planning process would be supported by purposeful MCDA implementation. This paper examines initial stages of the MCDA with a focus on the multi-stakeholder-group-driven collaborative development of a set of objectives (SOO). Additional emphasis is given to participatory methods for each stage of the two, presented case studies examined in this paper. An attempt has been made to describe perceptions and outcomes of the case studies. The developed SOOs are presented and discussed with special regard to the development process and the evaluation outcomes.

Keywords:

• Stakeholder participation
• multi-criteria decision analysis
• set of objectives
• integrated water supply and wastewater management

Acknowledgements

Parts of the activities described in this article have been supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under grant number [033L047A] (KREIS) and grant number [033W011E] (TWIST++). The authors gratefully acknowledge this support. Furthermore, we thank the anonymous reviewers, whose valuable comments enhanced the paper.

Notes

1. See supporting information.

2. See supporting information.

3. For classification of interactivity in MCDA processes cf. Marttunen et al. (2015)

4. See supporting information.

5. See supporting information.

6. See supporting information.

7. See supporting information.

8. He distinguishes standard stakeholders such as decision makers (DM), experts (EX) and planners (PL) and analysts (AN). Under interest groups (IG) he summarizes political parties, civic organizations, or residents of the impact area.

9. See supporting information.

10. See supporting information.

11. See supporting information.

12. German Association for Water, Wastewater and Waste (DWA).

13. See supporting information.

14. See supporting information.

15. See supporting information about TWIST++.

16. See supporting information.

17. See supporting information.

18. See supporting information.