SBIR Phase I: An Issue Development, Exploration and Analysis System (IDEA) to Support Group-Based Environmental Decision-Making for Brownfields Redevelopment

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目来自地理选择公司。将确定基于计算机的问题开发，勘探和分析系统（IDEAS）的优点和可行性，这是一种支持棕地再开发决策的软件工具。 棕地是典型的城市地区，由于过去工业活动造成的环境污染，目前已被废弃，不适合重新开发。 为了确定和选择需要清理的地区，决策者必须解决环境、健康、社会和经济方面的许多问题。 由于必须考虑的信息量以及参与决定“清洁”场地的人数，问题变得更加复杂。 空间决策支持系统（SDSS）是一个相对较新的技术，基于地理信息系统，是有用的加权标准和选择方案，但是，他们是不是有效的基于组的问题结构，以产生这些标准和替代品。 IDEAS技术将扩展当前SDSS软件的功能，以帮助各小组共同工作，定义和构建地理问题和解决方案。 随着布朗菲尔德网站，数量至少在数万，有效地从市场上删除，供应适合发展的财产被削减。 为了刺激重建，联邦政府率先提供方案和资金，在地方一级将利益相关者聚集在一起，创造性地解决这些问题。 这里提出的开发、勘探和分析系统对参与布朗菲尔德项目的决策者很有价值，可以加强参与者在决策各个阶段的共同理解。 其他可能的应用包括任何涉及多个标准和替代方案的选址决策，如环境影响评估，交通改善，医疗资源分配和商业房地产选址。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project from Geo Choice Inc. will determine the merit and feasibility of a computer-based issue development, exploration, and analysis system (IDEAS), a software tool to support brownfields redevelopment decision-making. Brownfields are typically urban areas that are currently abandoned and unattractive for redevelopment because of the implications of environmental contamination from past industrial activities. To identify and select the areas to clean up, decision-makers must address many issues which have environmental, health, social, and economic dimensions. The problem is further complicated by the amount of information that must be considered, and the number of people involved in the decision process that leads to `clean` sites. Spatial decision support systems (SDSS) are a relatively new technology, based on geographic information systems, that are useful for weighting criteria and selecting alternatives; however, they are not effective for group-based problem structuring to generate these criteria and alternatives. IDEAS technology will extend current SDSS software capabilities to help groups work together to define and structure geographic problems and solutions. With brownfield sites, numbering at least in the tens of thousands, effectively removed from the market, the supply of amenable to development properties is curtailed. To spur redevelopment, the federal government has taken the lead to provide programs and funding to bring the stakeholders together, at the local level, to address these problems creatively. The development, exploration and analysis system (IDEAS) proposed here would be valuable to decision makers involved in brownfield projects, enhancing the shared understanding of participants at all stages of decision-making. Other possible applications include any locational decision-making involving multiple criteria and alternatives such as environmental impact assessment, transportation improvement, health-care resource allocation, and commercial real-estate site selection.