Developing Multi-Criteria System for Prioritization of Urban Developmental Projects _ Gaza City as a Case Strip

Shereen Obaid*, and Farid Al Qeeq**

*Architect Engineer (Master Student in Islamic University-Gaza)

** Dean of Development and Planning Department in the Islamic University-Gaza

Corresponding author Email: shereen_obaid@hotmail.com

Accepted 03 November 2012

Abstract

International Non-Governmental and governmental Organization are adapting traditional approaches in identifying the needs of urban planning. As a result, development projects sometimes targeting unneeded geographical zones without having a clear framework that are based on studying all Multi-Criteria  of urban zones in term of poverty rates, available resources, current developmental projects, unemployment rates, youth distribution in the urban zones, gender share, ages and all related Multi-Criteria  that should be taken into consideration while doing the needs assessment for Human Developmental Projects. Therefore, projects funded by donors or local institutions do not always properly integrate into a comprehensive planning system that correspond consistently with local community needs. So, it is crucial to develop a method for prioritizing the required projects based on the urban planning strategies available in the Ministry of planning and local municipalities. The Paper will discuss how to identify priorities for improvement and to create an optimized program to facilitate access to the measurement of these indicators. The methodology of the research will be based on identifying relevant indicators and the weight of each one, in addition to the interrelated nature of the relationship between them. The main expected results will be having a sample of computerized program that could be used to measure these indicators and their weights. Sub-indicators will be also proposed based on a questionnaire that will target professionals and stakeholders, as needed to help identifying these priorities and how to determine the extent of its power based on economic, social, and environmental aspects, additionally, regional plans and structural elements of local communities will be taken into account. The proposed paper developed a new multi-criteria system using a sample of Gaza City urban structure as a case study to help the decision makers in NGO’s and government in ranking developmental projects. The case study will constitute a framework for available database for urban planning based on geographical distribution of developmental projects. The Paper ended up with a framework that can be implemented by most of INGOs and Governmental Organizations in which they were able to have a systemic approach in doing any needs assessment for urban planning for developmental Projects.

Keywords:  Multi Criteria Analysis, decision-making, Pritorization, Arc-GIS