Using Sipres – A Fusion of the Revised Simos’ Procedure and Zapros – in the Road Route Selection Process

Abstract

Road route decisions very frequently cause discussions and disagreement since they involve the number of stakeholders with competing interests. Before the construction of the road can start, the route for this road has to be determined, taking into account various facets, e.g. financial, technological, social and environmental ones. Such a situation can be described in the following way: the best possible choice must be made out of a finite set of alternatives (potential road routes) evaluated against a set of criteria. For this purpose different multicriteria decision aiding methods can be used, e.g. a novel tool called SIPRES. Its algorithm combines the key elements of the revised Simos’ procedure and the ZAPROS method. The method is transparent and easy to implement. On the one hand, it allows decision-makers to define their preferences simply and provides a straightforward but effective method for analysing the trade-offs between the alternatives using selected reference alternatives only (the ZAPROS-like approach). On the other hand, the revised Simos’ procedure applied in the method allows determining the cardinal scores for the alternatives. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how the road route can be selected with the help of the SIPRES method, and to show thereby that this technique may be useful for solving such complex problems and may improve a decision-making process in certain situations.