ARTICLE IN PRESS JID: EOR [m5G;August 26, 2017;13:23] European Journal of Operational Research 000 (2017) 1–17 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect European Journal of Operational Research journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ejor Non-compensatory composite indicators for the evaluation of urban planning policy: The Land-Use Policy Efficiency Index (LUPEI) Raffaele Attardi a,∗ , Maria Cerreta b , Valentina Sannicandro b , Carmelo Maria Torre a a Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Polytechnic of Bari, Bari, Italy b Department of Architecture, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 1 April 2016 Accepted 27 July 2017 Available online xxx Keywords: (S) Multiple-Criteria Analysis (S) Decision Support Systems Composite indicators ELECTRE methods Land-use change Land-use policy a b s t r a c t In this research paper, we define and test an ELECTRE III-based approach to the construction of non- compensatory composite indicators; these indicators are used for the evaluation of environmental and social performances of urban and regional planning policies. We tested the methodology for the con- struction of the Land-Use Policy Efficiency Index (LUPEI) on the municipal scale applied to a sample of municipalities in the Apulia Region (Southern Italy). Based on the literature review concerning composite indicators, we found that linear aggregation rules are the most widely applied aggregation procedures for composite indicators. However, their applicability depends on a set of strong theoretical and operational conditions. If these conditions do not hold, then other aggregation and weighting procedures must be ap- plied to construct the composite indicators. We tested the ELECTRE III via a fruitful interaction with three experts who were participating in a focus group. We found that composite indicators are powerful tools when it comes to the assessment of multidimensional planning issues. Since each sub-indicator provides different information and responds to different goals, rankings and assessment based on mono-indicator frameworks can lead to incomplete or even biased results that do not consider an integrated approach to land-use policy efficiency. Moreover, both experts and decision-makers appreciated the role of com- posite indicators in increasing knowledge and providing deeper insights into complex phenomena in the domains of urban and regional planning. © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction In the environmental assessment and urban planning domains, researchers and practitioners usually employ appropriate tools to tackle multidimensional and complex problems that need solving. Complexity arises from the interaction among conflicting and syn- ergic issues and targets, from the uncertainty of preferences and information available, and from the simultaneous presence of mul- tiple points of view and societal stakes. In real case studies dealing with the assessment of environ- mental, economic and social performances of public policies, Com- posite Indicators (CIs) are increasingly acknowledged as powerful tools for describing complex issues and benchmark performances of countries, regions and cities when it comes to multidimensional concepts; indeed, these concepts include well-being, sustainability, social progress, and quality of life. In particular, technical and scientific literature has shown nu- merous CIs which are used for sustainability assessment in dif- ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail address: raffaeleattardi@gmail.com (R. Attardi). ferent domains, as highlighted by Singh, Murty, Gupta, and Dik- shit (2012) in their review paper. They analysed procedures for the construction of CIs from 12 thematic areas, including Sustainability Indices for Cities, Environmental Indices for Policies, Nations and Regions, and Eco-system-based Indices; through their study, they confirmed the relevance and interest of scientific and technical lit- erature in the research topic of evaluation methodologies and tools for urban and environmental policies. Up until the present day, major applications of CIs have been used to compare and rank countries. However, CIs can be also used on more detailed geographical scales such as regions and munic- ipalities, with the purpose of analysing phenomena whose rele- vance occurs on a specific spatial scale. In the urban and regional planning domains, CIs are useful for the assessment of environ- mental and social performances of land-use policies which are reg- ulated at a specific administrative level in each country. However, the construction of CIs is not easy; indeed, a robust theoretical and logical framework must be defined in order to guarantee a transparent and democratic assessment process and improve the social acceptability of CIs as a decision support tool for public policies. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2017.07.064 0377-2217/© 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Please cite this article as: R. Attardi et al., Non-compensatory composite indicators for the evaluation of urban planning policy: The Land-Use Policy Efficiency Index (LUPEI), European Journal of Operational Research (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2017.07.064