Water Management Strategies in Urban Regions Analyzed by Partial Orders

0307010. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the agencies. ABSTRACT In contrast to conventional multicriteria decision aids we take the point of view of environmetrics: Let first the data speak, and then let us derive a ranking. In the present paper we introduce an improved "lab-version" of the decision support system METEOR (Method of evaluation by order theory). The basis of the method is a data matrix, whose objects are characterized by indicators. By means of the indicators a partial order is derived. In subsequent steps indicators are aggregated by a step-by-step weighting procedure, allowing a high degree of participation of stakeholders and other participants of the planning process. Hence a set of partial orders is obtained. The aim is to find finally either a linear order or (in order theoretical terms) a greatest element, i.e. an object which is the best in comparison with all others. As example four indicators are derived and assigned to 14 river sections in the urban area of Berlin/Potsdam.