The multi-actor multi-criteria analysis in action for sustainable urban mobility decisions: the case of Leuven

Urban mobility strategy-making usually involves a large number of
stakeholders with diverse objectives. Therefore, participatory decision-making
is a time-consuming and resource-intensive process. This paper discusses how
the multi-actor multi-criteria analysis (MAMCA) methodology complemented
with an electronic group decision support system (GDSS) can contribute to a
well-structured decision-making process to come to a commonly supported
mobility policy. The proposed approach is demonstrated through a workshop in
Leuven, Belgium where four scenarios to improve mobility in the city centre
were evaluated based on the preferences of 34 stakeholders. Our findings show
that criteria weighting, the set-up of the evaluation matrix, the ranking of
alternatives and implementation can be enhanced with our approach. The
proposed workshop setting provides an opportunity for stakeholders to
interactively weight and evaluate scenarios in an online software tool, while
interacting with each other in a workshop setting. Further improvements of the
process in terms of finding a compromise are also proposed.