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

Geo Choice公司的小企业创新研究第一阶段项目将确定基于计算机的问题开发、探索和分析系统（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，由于过去的工业活动造成的环境污染，这些地区目前被遗弃，不适合再开发。为了确定和选择需要清理的领域，决策者必须解决许多具有环境、健康、社会和经济方面的问题。这个问题由于必须考虑的信息量以及参与导致“干净”网站的决策过程的人员数量而进一步复杂化。空间决策支持系统（SDSS）是一项相对较新的技术，它以地理信息系统为基础，有助于加权标准和选择备选方案；然而，它们对于基于组的问题结构生成这些标准和备选方案并不有效。IDEAS技术将扩展当前SDSS软件的功能，帮助团队一起定义和构建地理问题和解决方案。随着至少有数万个棕地从市场上消失，适于开发的地产供应减少了。为了刺激重建，联邦政府已经带头提供项目和资金，将利益相关者聚集在一起，在地方一级创造性地解决这些问题。在此提出的发展、探索及分析系统（IDEAS），对参与棕地项目的决策者有重要价值，有助在决策的各个阶段增进参与者的共识。其他可能的应用包括任何涉及多种标准和备选方案的选址决策，如环境影响评估、交通改善、卫生保健资源分配和商业地产选址。

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.