Decision making in urban regeneration plans

Decision making at local planning level is usually concerned with evaluation of alternatives and selection of a preferred action. This can be improved with the use of multicriteria (MCA) methods which provide a systematic process for trading off effects of various alternative, synthesizing, individual contributions. This paper illustrates three MCA methods for evaluating complex planning projects where multiple criteria are taken into account. These methods are applied to an example of urban regeneration. Subjective issues, such as those related to the perception of quality of life, are taken into account alongside more quantitative data. The results obtained using the three methods are considered when applied to three alternative design solutions.