A multidimensional model based on the Choquet integral to evaluate performance of waterfront redevelopment projects in promoting local growth

The paper aim to construct a multi-criteria model assessing the suitability of waterfront development scenarios to contribute to local growth. The model applies to the city of Catania. It is built according to the strategic directions on territorial government recognized by European Community for Sicily. The evaluation model includes a set of strategic criteria for local social and economic sustainability. The aesthetic and functional regeneration of urban waterfront areas is a very complex issue because of the manifold social, environmental and economic implications. The choice among different alternatives of redevelopment of such a kind of areas should be addressed with typical techniques belonging to multidimensional analysis. Typically, the global preference of an action is the result of the aggregation of its partial performances with respect to the individual criteria. Traditionally, global preference models are based on classical Multiple Attribute Utility Theory or on methods based on pair-wise comparison of actions. These approaches assume that criteria are independent. In this paper the Choquet integral is applied as aggregation operator in order to evaluate the performance of two waterfront development scenarios with respect to the priority objectives of European Community policy and of strategic regional planning for local growth. The fuzzy integral approach takes into account interactions among the relevant dimensions in the decision problem, in order to build a valuation model closer to the complexity of the issue addressed.