Application of the analytic network process and the multimodal thinking to an urban upgrading case study

Multicriteria analysis is often used in planning for evaluating alternative development options against a set of evaluation criteria. In the context of sustainable development, the definition of these criteria is quite controversial because of the complex and fuzzy nature of this emerging topic. Decision making for sustainable (re)development at urban planning level requires an understanding of the multiple issues implied in the problem. The Multi-modal framework (MMF) developed by Brandon & Lombardi (2005) has proved to be able to help decision makers to handle the multiplicity of the issues embodied in the concept of urban sustainability, guiding the selection of appropriate criteria for evaluating alternatives solutions. This paper will apply this framework to an Italian urban (re)development problem by using the Analytic Network Process (ANP), a most advanced network version of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (Saaty, 2006). The ANP is the first mathematical theory that makes possible to systematically deal with all kinds of dependencies and feedback. It requires a network structure to represent the problem, as well as pair-wise comparison to establish relations within the structure. The MMF will be used to structure the problem for decision toward a more sustainable built environment.