Spatial Multi-Criteria Analysis in Environmental Assessment: A Review and Reflection on Benefits and Limitations

Ainhoa Gonzalez and Álvaro Enríquez- de-Salamanca
Additional contact information
Ainhoa Gonzalez: School of Geography, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland
Álvaro Enríquez- de-Salamanca: #x2020;DRABA Ingeniería y Consultoría Medioambiental, San Lorenzo de El Escorial, 28200 Madrid, Spain‡Faculty of Science, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Madrid, Spain

Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management (JEAPM), 2018, vol. 20, issue 03, 1-24

Abstract: Anticipating and avoiding adverse environmental effects resulting from land-use changes and other anthropogenic interventions is the key objective of environmental assessment (EA). EA requires consideration of multiple environmental criteria to establish the receiving environment’s sensitivity and capacity to absorb change. With the increasing availability of and accessibility to spatial data, the adoption of spatial multi-criteria analysis, also known as GIS–MCA, has become a prominent technique to support EA. Using two diverging case studies, this paper reflects upon the advantages and disadvantages of applying GIS–MCA in EA reported in literature. While the significant contribution of this approach to increasing objectivity, transparency and accountability is corroborated, it is recognised that there is no one-fits-all solution. The widespread application of GIS–MCA calls for further research on the effects that methodological assumptions and data limitations may have at various planning hierarchies and decisions, and how these can be addressed to optimise the value of this technique in EA.

Keywords: Decision support; environmental impact assessment; environmental sensitivity; geographic information systems; multi-criteria analysis; strategic environmental assessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S146433321840001X
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wsi:jeapmx:v:20:y:2018:i:03:n:s146433321840001x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from

DOI: 10.1142/S146433321840001X

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management (JEAPM) is currently edited by Thomas Fischer

More articles in Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management (JEAPM) from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tai Tone Lim ().