| Abstract |
Multicriteria analysis is widely used to perform sustainability evaluation for purposes such as decision making or
progress assessment following a chosen sustainable development concept. The stages of multicriteria analysis
include indicator selection, data characterization, normalization, weighting, and aggregation. However, due to
the various framings of sustainability, non-equivalent approaches could be adopted at each stage, introducing
methodological uncertainty. Consequently, depending on the methods chosen, divergent and conflicting conclusions
or decisions may result. This paper addresses the issue of methodological uncertainties in sustainability
evaluation by analyzing how methodological uncertainties arise during multicriteria analysis, then proposing an
analytical framework that employs uncertainty and sensitivity analyses to quantify and manage the effects of
methodological uncertainties. The consideration of methodological uncertainties in the structure of multicriteria
sustainability evaluation shifts the analysis from deterministic to probabilistic, which is advantageous to arrive
at robust and homogenized sustainability conclusions or decisions. |
Mindanao State
University - Iligan Institute of Technology