ABSTRACT
Decision making is a key element of the urban planning process, involving the evaluation of different planning alternatives, based on the assessment of trade-offs between conflicting outcomes. Firstly, it requires the selection of the objectives and the identification and quantification of the impacts on each objective generated by each planning alternative. Secondly, a specific valuation must be ascribed to each objective, reflecting policy priorities, which in turn are contingent to the set of values adopted by policy makers and stakeholders and to the context provided by the exogenous state of the world. This procedure is an essential condition to warrant the quality and transparency of decision making, mainly when the interventions have long lasting effects.
