Assessment of welfare impacts in transport system planning: Dissertation

This thesis is concentrated on assessment of the impacts that take place on the preconditions for welfare in the everyday life of people and the condition of the environment, when the transport system is being modified. Another aim is to introduce a process for decisionmakers to compare these so-called welfare impacts of different implementation schemes of transport plans, programmes and policies. Two applications of multi-criteria analysis were used in the doctoral study, namely Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Measuring Attractiveness by a Categorical-based Evaluation Technique (MACBETH). The welfare impacts of two Finnish case studies were evaluated in the study. These case studies were the enhancement project of the Seinäjoki-Oulu railway connection and the Helsinki Metropolitan Area Transport System Plan 2007. The main results of the study are the list of criteria of potential welfare impacts of modifications in the transport system, and a MCDA process called AssessmentAid, for implying values of the stakeholders in the impact analysis of a transport plan or project. Other results are 1) information about the welfare impacts of the two case studies, 2) information about the preference order of the plans when welfare impacts and values of the stakeholders are included in the impact analysis, and 3) information about experience in using multi-criteria methods in impact assessment within the Finnish transport sector. Also, the study contributed to the wider co-operation between the different branches of administration that are involved in the strategic transport system planning.