Projects aimed at smart cities: a hybrid MCDA evaluation approach

Project evaluation is a process that involves multiple decision criteria for different objectives and involves several specialists, becoming a complex decision-making process. In this sense, to reduce projects evaluation subjectivity in start-ups selection processes, this paper aims at structuring an evaluation model to select projects that present business models focused on strategies for smart cities. To test the proposed model, it was considered a smart cities project selection program in a medium-size city located on southside of Brazil. To do so, it was considered a multicriteria analysis method, in which relevant evaluation criteria for projects focused on intelligent cities were identified. Subsequently, Decision-Making And Trial Evaluation Laboratories (DEMATEL) method was used to weigh these identified evaluation criteria and, finally, TOPSIS method was instantiated to select the best alternative - the evaluated projects - among all alternatives. As a result, the multicriteria proposed model proved to be efficient in evaluating projects aimed at smart cities concepts, showing that the use of MCDA methods can minimise uncertainty and bias in evaluating projects in a quantitative approach.