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 s veral considerations in terms of environmental, technological and socio-economic aspects. A decisio n upport system becomes therefore necessary in ord er to manage problem complexity and to define effective r ehabilitation interventions. DESYRE (Decision Suppo rt sYstem for Rehabilitation of contaminated sites) is a oftware system which integrates risk assessment with socio-economic analysis and technological assessmen t in order to provide decision-makers with differen t remediation scenarios to be evaluated. The structur e of the system allows a subsequent analysis, from socioeconomic analysis and site characterization, to ris k a sessment before and after remediation technolog ies selection, until the definition of remediation scen arios. The system integrates several analytical too ls, such as geostatistics, Fuzzy logic, risk assessment and geo graphical information systems (GIS). The present pa per focuses on the role of the Multi-Criteria Decision A alysis (MCDA), which represents the core of the D SS. In the DESYRE framework, MCDA is applied for the defin ition of the pool of the suitable remediation technologies. The analytic hierarchy process is app lied to rank technologies and develop alternative remediation scenarios. The scenarios are described by a set of indices which can be aggregated by deci sion makers to rank alternative options. Future research developments suggest the MCDA application also for the evaluation of the remediation scenarios by differen t stakeholders, in a Group Decision Making (GDM) context.