Developing a green city assessment system using cognitive maps and the Choquet Integral

Abstract

Equitable human well-being and environmental concerns in urban areas have, over the years, become increasingly challenging issues. This trend is related to both the complexity inherent in the multiple factors to be considered when evaluating eco-friendly cities (i.e., green cities) and the way this type of city's sustainability depends on many evaluation criteria, which hampers all decision-making processes. Using a multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) approach, this study sought to develop a multiple-criteria model that facilitates the evaluation of green cities' sustainability, based on cognitive mapping techniques and the Choquet integral (CI). Taking a constructivist and process-oriented stance, the research included identifying evaluation criteria and their respective interactions using a panel of experts with specialized knowledge in the subject under analysis. The resulting framework and its application were validated both by the panel members and a parliamentary representative of the Portuguese ecology party "Os Verdes" (The Greens), who confirmed that the evaluation system created distinguishes between cities according to how strongly they adhere to "green" principles. The advantages and limitations of the proposed framework are also discussed.

Evolution of Renewable Energy in BRI Countries: A Combined Econometric and Decomposition Approach

“…For BRI countries, the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative has not only brought about the development of infrastructure construction, but also the development of tourism (in recent years, the number of tourists coming to BRI countries has increased, especially Chinese tourists) [ 63 ], which puts forward high demands on the urban environment. Brito et al [ 64 ] believe that the current direction of urban construction is towards a green and environmentally friendly city, which limits the discharge of industrial pollution and greatly increases the demand for green energy.…”

The hierarchical SMAA-PROMETHEE method applied to assess the sustainability of European cities

“…The evaluations of the considered cities have been normalized by the min-max normalization, and then aggregated considering weights assigned to the indicators and all possible coalitions of criteria, objectively based on the data at hand and, therefore, without any judgment of the Decision Maker (DM). The Choquet integral has also been used in conjunction with cognitive mapping by [8] and [11]. In the first paper, the "greenness" of 20 Portuguese cities has been evaluated, while, in the second, the "smartness" of the same 20 Portughese cities with respect to 6 macro-criteria has been analyzed.…”

Evaluation of Green Cities in the Drainage Area of China’s Beijing–Hangzhou Canal

“…According to the research of foreign scholars in the field of green city evaluation, a green city indicator evaluation system should provide description, explanation, evaluation, warning, and decision-making assistance to create computable indicators, collectable data, comparable methods, and explainable results [4,43,57].…”