Constructing strategies in strategic planning: a decision support evaluation model

Strategic urban and territorial planning typically suggests general lines, directions and strategic objectives for spatial, social and economical development of a city or a region with 15–20 years horizon. It also proposes an interrelated set of actions and projects which need to be undertaken and implemented in order to reach these strategic objectives. However, it is frequently unclear how and with what priority these actions and projects should effectively be implemented. Many existing tools and methods address problems such as project portfolio ranking and ordering, but various supplementary constraints or combinatorial aspects like project interdependencies increase the complexity of the problem. This paper presents a multi-objective evaluation model, and its related software tool, for project selection and prioritisation. The model tries to take into account the complexity of urban and territorial policy-making, yet allowing decision-makers to understand how the model works and to explore interactively the space of solutions.