Infrastructure Engineering - Research Publications
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ItemDiscuss: a soft computing approach tospatial disaggregation in economicevaluation of public policies(Blackwell, 2006)For more than three decades cost-benefit analysis (CBA) has been used in manycountries as an important tool for evaluating public policies. More recently, participationof stakeholders in CBA processes has become an important issue for governments.However, CBA by itself does not provide a good environment for stakeholderparticipation. A major reason for this is the lack of spatial disaggregation intraditional CBA. In order to allow greater public participation, a GIS-based approachis proposed. This approach uses a Geocomputational system, which incorporates softcomputing theory with expert systems in a geographic information systems (GIS)environment. It is designed to generate representations of environmental, economicand social policy outcomes according to the perceptions of the stakeholders and afterthe CBA results have been obtained. The methodology proposed for modellingimpacts in cases where uncertainty exists uses the soft computing theory of fuzzy logicto generate a raster map based on spatial inputs provided by the stakeholders involvedin the decision process. This computer-based system, called DISCUSS (DecisionInformation System for Community Understanding of Spatial Scenarios), is intendedfor situations where the government chooses to evaluate a policy using CBA anddesires to encourage public participation in evaluating the results identified by theeconomic methodology. DISCUSS and the maps that it produces are being testedin a public participation case study with long-term impacts over a large area ofsouth-eastern Australia.
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ItemSpatial and temporal representation of environmental policy outcomes using geocomputation: a case study in Victoria, Australia( 2003)For more than 30 years, cost-benefit analysis (CBA) has been used in many countriesas an important tool for evaluating public policies. In most cases CBA uses Kaldor-Hicks theory, which assumes that all the entities in the analysis should be consideredequal when distributing benefits and costs. However, for environmental policyevaluations, and especially for cases where a policy is directly affecting a communityor ecosystem with a high degree of vulnerability, the Kaldor-Hicks theory may not bein concordance with principals of equity and sustainability. In order to incorporatethese two concepts in the Cost-Benefit Analysis, a new approach to presentation ofenvironmental indicators for decision-making is proposed. The use of spatio-temporalenvironmental and social indicators provides the decision-maker with a broaderpicture of positive and negative impacts of the policy by considering entities in theanalysis in a differential form, according to their location in the space-time. A geocomputational(GC) system, which incorporates a space-time model and a geographicinformation system (GIS), was created and designed to generate new representationsof environmental policy outcomes. The system, which could be considered as adecision support system, has been designed to promote discussion in the decisionprocess rather than as a technocratic tool. The indicators and computer-based systemhave been tested in a water resources case study with long-term impacts over a largearea of south-eastern Australia.
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ItemGeo-computational alternative to improve economic evaluation of public policies( 2003)For more than 30 years, cost-benefit analysis (CBA) has been used in manycountries as an important tool for evaluating public policies. In most casesCBA uses Kaldor-Hicks theory, which assumes that all the entities in theanalysis should be considered equal when distributing benefits and costs.However, for environmental policy evaluations, and especially for cases wherea policy is directly affecting a community or ecosystem with a high degree ofvulnerability, the Kaldor-Hicks theory may not be in concordance withprincipals of equity and sustainability. In order to incorporate these twoconcepts in the Cost-Benefit Analysis, a new approach to presentation ofenvironmental indicators for decision-making is proposed. The use of spatiotemporalenvironmental and social indicators provides the decision-maker with a broader picture of positive and negative impacts of the policy byconsidering entities in the analysis in a differential form, according to theirlocation in the space-time. A geo-computational (GC) system, whichincorporates a space-time model and a geographic information system (GIS),was created and designed to generate new representations of environmentalpolicy outcomes. The system, which could be considered as a decisionsupport system, has been designed to promote discussion in the decisionprocess rather than as a technocratic tool. The indicators and computer-basedsystem have been tested in a water resources case study with long-termimpacts over a large area of south-eastern Australia.
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ItemDISCUSS: a methodology to support public participation in cost-benefit analysis( 2004)Despite many controversies, cost-benefit analysis (CBA) still been used in many countries as a tool in policy decision processes. More recently, publicparticipation in these CBA processes has become an important issue for governments. However, CBA by itself does not provide a good environmentfor public participation. The major reasons for this are the lack of spatial disaggregation in CBA results; the lack of community understanding of the economic methodologies used to generate these results and the uncertainty included in the technical models used during the process. A methodology based on geographic information system (GIS) is presented here to facilitate greater public participation in CBA. The process generates maps that represent the individual stakeholder perceptions and identification of areas where disagreements occur. This electronic governance tool, called DISCUSS(Decision Information System for Community Understanding of SpatialScenarios), is intended for situations where the government desires to encourage public participation in a decision process after the results from the CBA have been achieved. The main objective of the tool is to help thecommunities and the government in identifying the geographic areas that might require more attention during the discussion of the proposed scenariosfor the policy. DISCUSS and the maps that it produces are being tested in a public participation case study with long-term impacts over a large area of south-eastern Australia.
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ItemDiscuss: an alternative for taking decisions with anincomplete SDI( 2004)An ideal situation for a country or region will be to have a spatial data infrastructure (SDI)containing the datasets and models necessary to support all the planning and decisionprocesses. Often, especially in developing countries, this is not the case. Can governments takegood and valid decisions in cases where the available SDI is not capable of having all thedatasets or models required for the decision? In order to approach this question we havedeveloped a decision support system called DISCUSS (decision information system forcommunity understanding of spatial scenarios). DISCUSS is a customised application underArcMap and uses a fuzzy logic methodology to incorporate the soft information from the expertsand the community into the decision process. The main objective of DISCUSS is to reduceuncertainty in the spatial distribution of decision impacts and at the same time support publicparticipation. The System and the maps that it produces are being tested in a case study withlong-term consequences for a large area of south-eastern Australia.
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ItemDiscuss: a soft computing approach to spatial disaggregation in economic evaluation of public policies( 2006)For more than three decades cost-benefit analysis (CBA) has been used in many countries as an important tool for evaluating public policies. More recently, participation of stakeholders in CBA processes has become an important issue for governments. However, CBA by itself does not provide a good environment for stakeholder participation. A major reason for this is the lack of spatial disaggregation in traditional CBA. In order to allow greater public participation, a GIS based approach is proposed. This approach uses a Geocomputational system, which incorporates soft computing theory with expert systems in a geographic information systems (GIS) environment. It is designed to generate representations of environmental, economic and social policy outcomes according to the perceptions of the stakeholders and after the CBA results have been obtained. The methodology proposed for modelling impacts in cases where uncertainty exists uses the soft computing theory of fuzzy logic to generate a raster map based on spatial inputs provided by the stakeholders involved in the decision process. This computer based system, called DISCUSS (Decision Information System for Community Understanding of Spatial Scenarios), is intended for situations where the government chooses to evaluate a policy using CBA and desires to encourage public participation in evaluating the results identified by the economic methodology. DISCUSS and the maps that it produces are being tested in a public participation case study with long-term impacts over a large area of south-eastern Australia.