Information and Territorial Decision Support. Florent Joerin

Abstract

This contribution is a synthesis and a reflection based on almost ten years of research in territorial decision support. It starts with a discussion about the concepts of “territorial information” and “territorial decision-making”. Then, two application examples are briefly presented to illustrate the two main kinds of tools. The first one is an indicator system, available on the Internet and supporting different stakeholders to make a diagnosis of social development in Montréal. The second one is a multicriteria analysis made for Québec public Transport Company in order to choose which equipment will be installed at the different bus stops. The contribution ends with a critical debate mentioning the role of information in decision processes. Firstly, based on our experience in territorial decision, we are convinced that decision support has essentially to help decision-makers to build their preferences. In this context, the decision-makers do not try to improve the decision performance, but mainly to understand the problem and its stakes, and find a satisfying alternative. Secondly, we also observe sometimes a paradoxical situation where the stakeholders are clearly not so well informed but they do not ask for (new) information.

As a consequence, the information gathered in the decision-making process is perhaps not as essential as we suppose and bringing information in this kind of decision processes should be considered as a challenge.

Keywords

Territorial decision, decision support, multicriteria analysis, GIS, indicator systems, participative process

Cite this article

JOERIN F., 2009. Information and Territorial Decision Support. In International Conference of Territorial Intelligence, Besançon 2008. Papers on Tools and methods of Territorial Intelligence, MSHE, Besançon, 2009. <URL: http://www.territorial-intelligence.eu/index.php/besancon08/Joerin>