Authors: Christina Diakaki

Title: Combining methods and user-interaction features to improve decision making: The case of building energy-efficient decisions

Abstract

As Howard noted as early as in 1966, “A decision is an irrevocable allocation of resources, irrevocable in the sense that it is impossible or extremely costly to change back to the situation that existed before making the decision”. It is thus necessary, when decisions have to be made, to consider and carefully elaborate all potential outcomes, uncertainties, as well as the value system and the preferences of the corresponding decision maker (DM). This consideration takes place within the decision-making process, which typically involves some short of formulation of the decision problem that enables evaluation of the alternative courses of action and allows for a good decision, that is a decision that satisfies the DM, to be made. To assist this process, one among a variety of methods, with diverse strong and weak elements, is typically employed. Using as example case, the problem of choosing building technologies and measures that will prove to be more efficient and reliable in the long run from an energy, environmental and cost perspective, this study suggests that it is more beneficial to adopt, and exploit together, more than one method. What is really needed is to keep our perspective open, to think outside the box, and to gain more awareness about the methodological choices that are available, waiting to be appropriately exploited.