Ranking zones model - a multicriterial approach to the spatial management of urban areas

Urban investment planning is highly complex and different views are provided by stakeholders and experts as to the scope, scale and potential solutions. The evaluation of such investments requires explicit consideration of multiple, conflicting and incommensurate criteria that have an important social, economic, and environmental influence on various stakeholders in different ways. To take into account all the dimensions, the proposed model is the Ranking Zones Model (RZM), based on PROMETHEE methods. The RZM comprises several steps providing a rank-list of all observed zones. It helps decision-makers come up with consistent decisions as to which zones to invest in and, at the same time, provides reassurance that the decision was based on a proper comparison of all relevant urban zone areas. The advantage of this approach is that even with a change in the decision-making structure, the actual procedure remains consistent.