title: Multicriteria decision aid in supporting decisions related to groundwater protection.
abstract: In the recent decades, there have been frequent conflicts between groundwater resources and environmentally hazardous activities. An example is the construction of the new highway through the important glaciofluvial esker aquifer Nybroåsen, which passes the protection zone of the water supply for the Kalmar municipality, in the southeastern part of Sweden. The decision to build the new road through this important aquifer has been strongly questioned by the municipality and the public because the value of the water resources in Nybroåsen was not taken into consideration during the first phase of the decision-making process. Multicriteria decision aid (MCDA) is applied as a tool to structure and analyze the four road alternatives proposed in the environmental impact assessment for the above conflict. The alternatives, including the existing road, are in conflict with water resources, agriculture, natural, and cultural values. The impacts on the water resources have been predicted by a two-dimensional physically based time-variant flow and solute groundwater model, which has been calibrated and evaluated. The MCDA illustrates how it can be used to identify (1) actors and their concerns, (2) ranking of alternative road scenarios according to actors' preferences, and (3) coalition groups of actors, i.e., groups that have similar views with regard to the road alternatives. The analysis shows that the two best compromise solutions obtained in the MCDA were unacceptable by the strongest coalition group, showing that either the family of criteria was not well chosen or new alternatives should have been developed.
authors.affiliation: Joint Research Centre, Commission of the European Communities, Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen, 1-210 20 Ispra (VA), Italy. Ase.Eliasson@fao.org
authors.forename: Ase
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Eliasson
authors.forename: Francesco Mazzeo
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Rinaldi
authors.forename: Niklas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Linde
mesh_terms: D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D004779:Environment Design; D005160:Facility Design and Construction; D012989:Soil Pollutants; D013548:Sweden; D014186:Transportation; D014876:Water Pollution / Q000517:prevention & control*; D014881:Water Supply
chemical_list: D012989:Soil Pollutants