Combining Heterogeneous Indicators by Adopting Adaptive MCDA: Dealing with Uncertainty

Adaptive MCDA systematically supports the dynamic combination of heterogeneous indicators to assess overall performance. The method is completely generic and is currently adopted to undertake a number of studies in the area of sustainability. The intrinsic heterogeneity characterizing this kind of analysis leads to a number of biases, which need to be properly considered and understood to correctly interpret computational results in context. While on one side the method provides a comprehensive data-driven analysis framework, on the other side it introduces a number of uncertainties that are object of discussion in this paper. Uncertainty is approached holistically, meaning we address all uncertainty aspects introduced by the computational method to deal with the different biases. As extensively discussed in the paper, by identifying the uncertainty associated with the different phases of the process and by providing metrics to measure it, the interpretation of results can be considered more consistent, transparent and, therefore, reliable.