Revisiting MIVES: A multicriteria sustainability evaluation method

Abstract

The evaluation of carbon footprint is quickly becoming a requirement for decision-making processes of infrastructure projects. Nevertheless, as described by the latest European standards and ISO guidelines, proper sustainability assessments must not only include environmental considerations (e.g., carbon footprint), but also economic, and social assessments. These three distinct requirements are quantified using several indicators including resilience, job creation, direct and indirect costs, global warming potential, and human toxicity, among many others. Results from each requirement (i.e., environmental, economic, and social) can be aggregated into a single score result for every compared solution in order to streamline a decision-making process. The present work provides a thorough description of MIVES, a multicriteria sustainability evaluation methodology, which uses the concept of value to evaluate, weight, and aggregate sustainability related indicators into a single sustainability index score. Two idealized geosynthetic-related scenarios (i.e., reinforcement application) are provided as examples.