Group decision making in infrastructure safety planning

摘要

Infrastructure planning involves a multitude of concerns, where safety considerations generally range behind economic issues. We hypothesize that safety issues are insufficiently considered in infrastructure planning due to the lack of a shared view among the different safety experts, and that a carefully designed participatory group decision making method can support safety experts in reaching a shared view on the problem. To test our hypothesis, we developed a participatory methodology that helps infrastructure providers, spatial planners and emergency responders converge their views on safety in infrastructure planning. The methodology integrates dynamically and interactively risk and deterministic safety analysis and deliberation processes; the methodology has been integrated in a mobile multimedia group decision network system. We discuss the application of this method for the Northeastern Connection of the Betuweline: a freight railway linking Rotterdam Harbor to the German Ruhrgebiet. Structured questionnaires, audio tapes, observations and interviews with the participants confirm the method's merit in reaching a shared view and consensus for safety aspects in infrastructure planning. The results of this study provide evidence for our hypothesis and indicate ways for how to consider more efficiently and effectively safety issues in infrastructure planning.