Abstract

This paper presents a Multi-Criteria Prioritization Framework (MCPF) that can assist decision-makers and government administrators in identifying and ranking infrastructure sustainability objectives in developing countries. The framework also helps governments of developing countries in assessing the priority of repair of damaged infrastructure assets, based on significant sustainability objectives. A Template of infrastructure sustainability objectives is developed through literature review and interviews with key experts. A questionnaire-based survey solicits experts’ opinions to rate the sustainability objectives based on their relative importance to the public, using a five-point Likert rating scale. The quality of experts participating in the rating process is determined using the pair-wise comparison method of the analytical hierarchical process (AHP) that calculates a crisp importance weight value of each expert, based on his or her qualification criteria. The relative importance index (RII) method is adapted to prioritize the sustainability objectives, which integrates the rating scores assigned by experts and their relative importance weight factors. A crisp facility sustainability priority index (FSPI) is computed using a survey-based approach and a weighted sum technique in multi-criteria decision analysis that determines the priority of repair of damaged infrastructure facilities, based on significant sustainability objectives. In order to test the applicability of the prioritization framework, a case study is applied in Egypt to demonstrate how the model can assist governments of developing countries in prioritizing damaged infrastructure assets that need urgent repairs. The prioritization framework presented in this paper offers a simple yet efficient evaluation technique to decision-makers with limited budgets that accounts for sustainability objectives in deciding on the repair priorities of damaged facilities.

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