Alvarez-Guerra Manuel, Viguri Javier R, Voulvoulis Nikolaos
Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom.
Environ Int. 2009 Aug;35(6):920-30. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2009.03.012. Epub 2009 May 14.
Decision-making for sediment management is a complex task that incorporates the selections of areas for remediation and the assessment of options for any mitigation required. The application of Multicriteria Analysis (MCA) to rank different areas, according to their need for sediment management, provides a great opportunity for prioritisation, a first step in an integrated methodology that finally aims to assess and select suitable alternatives for managing the identified priority sites. This paper develops a methodology that starts with the delimitation of management units within areas of study, followed by the application of MCA methods that allows ranking of these management units, according to their need for remediation. This proposed process considers not only scientific evidence on sediment quality, but also other relevant aspects such as social and economic criteria associated with such decisions. This methodology is illustrated with its application to the case study area of the Bay of Santander, in northern Spain, highlighting some of the implications of utilising different MCA methods in the process. It also uses site-specific data to assess the subjectivity in the decision-making process, mainly reflected through the assignment of the criteria weights and uncertainties in the criteria scores. Analysis of the sensitivity of the results to these factors is used as a way to assess the stability and robustness of the ranking as a first step of the sediment management decision-making process.
沉积物管理决策是一项复杂的任务，它涉及到修复区域的选择以及对所需任何缓解措施选项的评估。应用多标准分析（MCA）根据不同区域对沉积物管理的需求进行排名，为确定优先次序提供了绝佳机会，这是综合方法的第一步，最终目标是评估和选择管理已确定优先场地的合适替代方案。本文开发了一种方法，首先在研究区域内划定管理单元，然后应用MCA方法根据这些管理单元对修复的需求进行排名。该提议的过程不仅考虑沉积物质量的科学证据，还考虑其他相关方面，如与此类决策相关的社会和经济标准。通过将该方法应用于西班牙北部桑坦德湾的案例研究区域进行说明，突出了在该过程中使用不同MCA方法的一些影响。它还使用特定地点的数据来评估决策过程中的主观性，这主要通过标准权重的分配和标准分数中的不确定性来体现。将结果对这些因素的敏感性分析用作评估排名稳定性和稳健性的一种方式，作为沉积物管理决策过程的第一步。
