Structuring transport decision-making problems through stakeholder engagement: The case of catania metro accessibility

This paper presents a procedure for the structuring of a problem hierarchy by involving key stakeholders, rep-resenting a first step towards a participatory decision-making process. The case study regards the building of a new metro station in Catania (Italy), which will be the closest station to a high-demand district where healthcare and university services and a park-and-ride facility are located. Due to the distance and the high slope between the station and the district, a dedicated transit system linking the two nodes is under study, and four different alternatives have been proposed. Key stakeholders have been identified and involved via in-depth interviews. A questionnaire, a GIS map and a SWOT-like graph have been used to present them the problem and capture their preferences and opinions. From the results of the interviews, a first hierarchy of the problem has been built, that can be used for stakeholder-driven multicriteria analysis.