Over the last few decades, Urban Heat Stress (UHS) has become a crucial concern of scientists and policy-makers. Many projects have been implemented to mitigate Urban Heat Island (UHI) effects using nature-based solutions. However, decision-making and selecting an adequate framework are difficult because of complex interactions between natural, social, economic and built environments. This paper contributes to the UHI issue by: (i) identifying the most important key factors of a Decision Support Tool (DST) used for urban heat mitigation, (ii) presenting multi-criteria methods applied to urban heat resilience, (iii) reviewing existing spatial and non-spatial DSTs, (iv) and analyzing, classifying and ranking DSTs. It aims to help decision-makers through an overview of the pros and cons of existing DSTs and indicate which tool is providing maximum support for choosing and planning heat resilience measures from the designing phase to the heat mitigation phase. This review shows that Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) can be used for any pilot site and the criteria can be adapted to the given location accordingly. It also highlights that GIS-based spatial tools have an effective decision support system (DSS) because they offer a quick assessment of interventions and predict long-term effects of urban heat. Through a comparative study using specific chosen criteria, we conclude that the DSS tool is well suited and fulfils many prerequisites to support new policies and interventions to mitigate UHS.

In this study, an Analytic Hierarchy Process based approach is proposed for the selection of heat stress prevention measures. This approach provides decision makers with an easy way to evaluate the criteria that help the decision-making process in choosing appropriate measures for hotspots. The study focuses on the key pre-criteria before implementing an intervention. The proposed scheme is based on a comparison between the interventions to show the importance of the alternatives. The evaluation of the measures is obtained from a questionnaire where human judgment is used for a comparison, based on their perception and priorities. The final results showed that green roof is most beneficial option for heat stress mitigation with respect to criteria taken into account.

Decision making is the process of making choices by organizing relevant information and evaluating alternatives. MCDMs (Multi-Criteria Decision Methods) help to select and prioritize alternatives step by step. These tools can help in many engineering fields where the problem is complex and advanced. However, there are some limitations of the different MCDMs that reduce the reliability of the decision that needs to be improved and highlighted. In this study, Elimination and Choice Expressing Reality (ELECTRE) NI (Net Inferior), NS (Net Superior), Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solutions (TOPSIS), Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation (PROMETHEE), VIekriterijumsko KOmpromisno Rangiranje (VIKOR), Multi-Objective Optimization Ratio Analysis (MOORA), Weight Sum Method (WSM) and Weighted Product Method (WPM) are applied for the selection of urban heat mitigation measurements under certain criteria. The models were applied using weighting criteria determined by two ways, (i) the direct weighting method and (ii) the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), for precise weighting factoring through pairwise comparison. This numerical research evaluated the reliability of MCDMs using the same decision matrix under different normalization techniques and shows the impact of AHP on the decision. The results show that WSM and PROMETHEE provided reliable and consistent results for all normalization techniques. The combination of AHP with applied MCDMs improved the frequency of consistent ranking, except with ELECTRE-NS.

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In this study, an Analytic Hierarchy Process based approach is proposed for the selection of heat stress prevention measures. This approach provides decision makers with an easy way to evaluate the criteria that help the decision-making process in choosing appropriate measures for hotspots. The study focuses on the key pre-criteria before implementing an intervention. The proposed scheme is based on a comparison between the interventions to show the importance of the alternatives. The evaluation of the measures is obtained from a questionnaire where human judgment is used for a comparison, based on their perception and priorities. The final results showed that green roof is most beneficial option for heat stress mitigation with respect to criteria taken into account.