Multiple criteria decision analysis in regional planning. Concepts, methods and applications (Q1188510)

This book is devoted to presenting a theoretical fundament for the methods of multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) in the social sciences with particular intent to their applicability to regional planning. MCDM is composed of two phases: analytical and judgemental. These two phases are consolidated to present integrated methodologies for manipulating them with particular interest in managerial decision making (DM). The principal question is how the decision is made, as distinct from classical mathematical programming in which what decision is made is the matter of most interest. Two major approaches are applied. One is mathematical optimization such as multiobjective mathematical programming, which is effective for handling the analytical phase with quantitative modeling. The other is multiobjective decision analysis, which is useful for treating the judgemental phase with axiomatic and numerical representations. Multiattribute preference analyses present operational devices for multiobjective extensions of decision analysis. Fuzzy as well as stochastic extensions of both of these methods can also be discussed for handling ambiguity in DM. The authors combine mathematical programming for the analytical phase with decision analysis for the judgemental phase. The main way of bridging the gap between the above phases is the use of Kuhn-Tucker multipliers derived from mathematical programming as the basic evaluation factor, as the shadow prices or the marginal rates of substitutions, and to submit them for coordination processes via the mediation function of DM with or without the construction of the utility or value functions. The issue of the book is examined in three ways: (1) Evaluation of the marginal rates of substitution among objectives in Chapters 2-4: Approach to multiple criteria optimization; Interactive multiobjective mathematical programming; Interactive fuzzy multiobjective programming. (2) Heuristic construction of the preference function of DM in Chapters 5-8: The preference structure of the decision making; Multiattribute decision analysis; Value conflicts in multiple agents decision making; Reconsideration of preference structure. (3) Utilization of the Kuhn-Tucker multipliers as the basic evaluation factor in a transformation in Chapters 9-12: Resource allocation and duality; Imputation of dual prices; Applications of the nested Lagrangian multiplier method; Interpretation of duality in game theory. The book is self-contained, and thus basic concepts are explained in various ways even with some duplication. However, some preliminary knowledge of elementary calculus, convex analysis and mathematical programming are pre-requisit for reading this book.