Mission
The types of decisions made
by the public and private sector organizations often involve geographically
related data and information, a large number of feasible alternatives,
and multiple, conflicting and incommensurate evaluation criteria. The alternatives
are usually evaluated by a number of individuals (managers, decision makers,
stakeholders, interest groups). The individuals are typically characterized
by unique preferences with respect to the relative importance of evaluation
criteria. Accordingly, many real-world spatial planning and management
problems give rise to Geographic Information System (GIS)-based multicriteria
decision making (MCDM). It is suggested that the two distinctive areas
of research, GIS and MCDM, can benefit from each other. We belief that
GIS-based techniques and procedures have an important role to play in analyzing
MCDM problems. GIS technology offers unique capabilities of automating,
managing, and analysing a variety of spatial data for decision making.
On the other hand, MCDM and a variety of related methodologies such as
multi-objective decision-making (MODM), multi-attribute decision-making
(MADM), multiattribute utility theory (MAUT), public choice theory, and
collaborative decision making, offer a rich collection of techniques and
procedures to reveal preferences and to incorporate them into GIS-based
decision-making. While significant work has be done in both GIS and MCDM
areas, there is a need for developing a unified framework for a GIS-based
multicriteria decision analysis. We believe that the problem can best be
addressed by a research group composed of scientists and practitioners
from these separate fields representing variety of academic disciplines.
The mission
of the GIMDA Research Group is to foster international and interdisciplinary
cooperation among academics, research students and practitioners in the
field of geographic information and decision analysis
The main objectives of
the Research Group are:
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to bring together academics
and practitioners working in the field of GIS and MCDM
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to initiate, stimulate and
promote interdisciplinary research programs and projects
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to facilitate international
cooperation among researchers interested in theoretical and practical aspects
of geographic-information-based approaches to multicriteria decision analysis
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to promote computer-based
MCDM techniques and GIS technology.
