Smoothing down arbitrariness in planning: From SWOT to participatory decision making

• Published in: Land use policy 2022-08, Vol.119, p.106213, Article 106213
• Main Authors: Stacchini, Annalisa, Guizzardi, Andrea, Mariotti, Alessia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Electre III; Nominal Group Technique; Participatory planning process; Stakeholder priorities; Sustainable tourism development
• ISSN: 0264-8377; 1873-5754
• DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2022.106213

SWOT analyses are frequently employed in land use planning, the literature proposes improved versions for reducing decision-making arbitrariness, however some drawbacks remain. The purpose of this paper is to design the methodological steps of participatory land use planning through a three-fold SWOT, yielding a strategy that is both feasible and in line with the residents’ vision. First, residents are interviewed with open-ended questions permitting them to freely express their ideas. Institutional players are involved next, through a modified Nominal Group Technique. Prioritization of factors is reached through an automatic algorithm that synthesizes the opinions of residents and institutional players, while avoiding the compensation between low scores for some criteria and high scores for others, so that the community’s view is not overpowered. The prioritization is also based on the interconnection between factors, to ensure feasibility of the strategy indicated. The results of our illustrative application show that this method can lead to community-based entrepreneurial land use. Unexpectedly, in the small area considered, institutional players place greater consideration on the development perspective of local businesses, compared to residents, who display a greater environmental consciousness and commitment to biodiversity conservation. •An innovative three-fold SWOT methodology involving residents is proposed.•Qualitative and quantitative methods combined overcome some extant SWOT drawbacks.•Arbitrariness of decision-making is reduced.•Prioritization is based also on the feasibility of the land use strategies.•Residents are more environmental conscious than institutional players.