Title: Sustainable development and morphological analysis: a multi-level strategic planning for the transport sector

Authors: Maria De Fátima Teles; Jorge Freire De Sousa

Addresses: CP – Comboios de Portugal, E.P.E., Praça Almeida Garrett, Estação Porto São Bento, 4000-060, Porto, Portugal ' INESC TEC, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-265 Porto, Portugal

Abstract: Societies face complex challenges, which require a harmonious transition to future patterns. A strategic response to reconfigure society should assure the provision of critical resources and the resilience of the socio-technical systems in the long-term. The implementation of a new dominant technology and paradigm in the transport context is a complex process: it is multidimensional, requires seamless integration of various features and entails trade-offs in the decision-making process. The authors use general morphological analysis (GMA) as a theoretical framework that supports decision making in the transition management of transport to a new powertrain technology. This example is just an illustration of a broader representation of all the possible solutions of a large-scale problem as it is the case of any multi-level process of governance, leading to the pursuit of new paradigms. The originality of the paper lies on using a GMA that addresses sustainable challenges in a transport system from a multi-level perspective.

Keywords: sustainable development; multi-level process; transport; integrated decision-making; general morphological analysis; GMA.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIDS.2021.119373

International Journal of Information and Decision Sciences, 2021 Vol.13 No.4, pp.350 - 364

Received: 20 Sep 2018
Accepted: 16 Sep 2019
Published online: 02 Dec 2021 *

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