the top 20 account for almost 50%. Alternately stated, approximately 5% of the
journals have published more than a quarter of the papers, while about 15% of the
journals account for almost half of all the GIS-MCDA articles.
4. Classifications of the GIS-MCDA articles
A number of approaches to structuring GIS-MCDA have been suggested in the
literature (Jankowski 1995, Malczewski 1999, Herwijnen and Rietveld 1999, Laaribi
2000, Chakhar and Martel 2003). Despite differences between the GIS-MCDA
frameworks, one can identify five generic components of the GIS-based MCDA
procedures: (i) a goal or a set of goals an individual (or a group of individuals)
attempts to achieve along with associated evaluation criteria (objectives and/or
attributes) on the basis of which the decision-maker evaluates alternative courses of
action; (ii) the decision-maker or a group of decision-makers involved in the
decision-making process along with their preferences; (iii) the set of decision
alternatives (or the decision variables); (iv) the set of uncontrollable variables or
states of nature (decision environment); and (v) the set of outcomes or consequences
associated with each alternative-criterion pair.
Given the generic components of GIS-MCDA, two classification schemes for the
GIS-MCDA literature were developed. First, all articles were classified based on the
geo-information (GIS) components of the GIS-MCDA methods. This classification
involved the following considerations: (i) the geographical data models, (ii) the
spatial dimension of the evaluation criteria, and (iii) the spatial definition of decision
alternatives. Second, the articles were classified according to the generic elements of
the MCDA methods. This taxonomy was based on (i) the nature of evaluation
criteria, (ii) the number of individuals involved in the decision-making process, and
Table 1. The list of refereed journals that have published four or more articles on
GIS-MCDA in 1990–2004.
Rank Journal # of articles %
1 International Journal of Geographical Information Systems/Science 21 6.6
2 Landscape and Urban Planning 14 4.4
3 Environment and Planning A/B 12 3.8
4 Journal of Geographic Information and Decision Analysis 11 3.4
5–6 Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 10 3.1
5–6 Journal of Environmental Management 10 3.1
7–8 Environmental Modelling and Software 7 2.2
7–8 Environmental Management 7 2.2
9 Transportation Research Record 6 1.9
10–16 Agricultural Systems 5 1.6
10–16 Annals of the Association of American Geographers 5 1.6
10–16 Ecological Modelling 5 1.6
10–16 Forest Ecology and Management 5 1.6
10–16 Journal of Environmental Engineering 5 1.6
10–16 Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing 5 1.6
10–16 Transportation Research: Part A/B/C/D 5 1.6
17–20 Conservation Biology 4 1.3
17–20 Decision Support Systems 4 1.3
17–20 European Journal of Operational Research 4 1.3
17–20 Transactions in GIS 4 1.3
Others 170 53.3
Total 319 100
706 J. Malczewski
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