ELECTRE III as a support for participatory decision-making on the localisation of waste-treatment plants

Locating an incinerator and a facility to store ashes and other wastes is a long and complex process in Italy. The District of Turin faced this situation by choosing a participative approach to the problem and by using multi-criteria (MC) analysis as a support for specific phase of this decision process. A group of 45 decision-makers (local authorities and representatives from the different communities that were involved) worked together with I facilitator group for 16 months to identify the criteria judged relevant to analyse the consequences of the location of a plant, Two MC models one for the incinerator and the other for the waste-disposal plant-were elaborated and an ELECTRE method used to compare sites and rank them with the aim of selecting the best sites to activate an Environmental Impact Assessment procedure. A team made LIP of analysts from different organisations supported this work from a technical point of view. This paper proposes an analysis of this participatory decision process and synthesises the difficulties and results of the MC decision aid intervention. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.