Structuring the Decision Problem. A Spatial Multi-methodological Approach

Multicriteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) allows to establish preferences about multiple options by considering both qualitative and quantitative data. MCDA is structured in main stages aimed at supporting Decision-Makers (DMs) to establish the decision context, elicit main objectives, explore potential decisions by assessing their performances and to take a final decision. Within the decision context concerning the location of healthcare facilities, four main steps of the stages characterizing the MCDA have been investigated given their relevance in affecting the decision problem, namely the presence of a variety of stakeholders, the definition of a consistent set of criteria, the choice of the criteria weight elicitation procedure and the selection of an aggregation procedure. The purpose of the contribution is to present some prominent existing methodologies aimed at developing the four steps identified in order to detect strengths and weaknesses. Moreover, given the nature of the decision problem, main features of the spatial analysis will be discussed.