title: Building consensus in environmental impact assessment through multicriteria modeling and sensitivity analysis.
abstract: Multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) increasingly is being applied in environmental impact assessment (EIA). In this article, two MCDA techniques, stochastic analytic hierarchy process and compromise programming, are combined to ascertain the environmental impacts of and to rank two alternative sites for Mexico City's new airport. Extensive sensitivity analyses were performed to determine the probability of changes in rank ordering given uncertainty in the hierarchy structure, decision criteria weights, and decision criteria performances. Results demonstrate that sensitivity analysis is fundamental for attaining consensus among members of interdisciplinary teams and for settling debates in controversial projects. It was concluded that sensitivity analysis is critical for achieving a transparent and technically defensible MCDA implementation in controversial EIA.
authors.affiliation: School of Natural ResourcesBiological Sciences East, RM. 207, University of Arizona , Tuscon, Arizona, 85721, USA. l_boj@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Luis A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Bojórquez-Tapia
authors.forename: Salvadur
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sánchez-Colon
authors.forename: Arturo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Florez
mesh_terms: D000401:Aircraft; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000506:poisoning*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014186:Transportation
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants