AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION OF Evan Erasmo Gutierrez for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Environmental Sciences presented on December 8, 2015. Title: Collaborative Neighborhood-Scale Sustainability Assessment and Planning using the Spatial Optimization for Urban Resource Conservation and Engagement (SOURCE) Tool: Applying the Analytic Hierarchy Process for Spatial Decision Support Abstract approved: ______________________________________________________ Carolyn Fonyo Boggess A fundamental problem that emerges during the planning of a city or neighborhood is how to prioritize sustainable development criteria and where to focus efforts. Solving this problem is a complex task requiring an integrated approach, which considers environmental, economic, and social criteria, as well as stakeholder preferences. Given the complexity of the problem and its spatial dimensions, it may be examined by combining Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) methods in a Geographical Information System (GIS) environment. These approaches, which are based on the collective definition and weighting of multiple criteria and indicators of neighborhood sustainability, create a spatial decision support system (SDSS) to inform land use planning. The Spatial Optimization for Urban Resource Conservation and Engagement (SOURCE) DSS was created to identify priority development areas for the South of Market EcoDistrict, an urban renewal area in Portland, Oregon. Environmental, economic, and social criteria and indicators were selected and evaluated through content analysis of comprehensive plans, official reports, and stakeholder-derived data. The priorities of top-down and bottom-up stakeholders were organized into a hierarchical decision structure to facilitate a series of pairwise comparisons. This AHP-based methodology resulted in a systematic weighting of sustainable development indicators that were spatially optimized for shared public and private values. The preferences of these stakeholders were spatially modeled to identify the location of poor performing blocks in the neighborhood that have a shared interest among stakeholder groups. The final result was an SDSS that identified the most suitable sites for neighborhood-scale sustainable development projects based on a need for mitigation and shared public and private values. The ability to adapt current sustainability development indicators to the neighborhood scale was also evaluated. Combining AHP with GIS proved to be a useful method in participatory sustainability planning when alternative projects need to be identified and prioritized to guide the development of a neighborhood. ©Copyright by Evan Erasmo Gutierrez December 8, 2015 All Rights Reserved Collaborative Neighborhood-Scale Sustainability Assessment and Planning using the Spatial Optimization for Urban Resource Conservation and Engagement (SOURCE) Tool: Applying the Analytic Hierarchy Process for Spatial Decision Support by Evan Erasmo Gutierrez A DISSERTATION submitted to Oregon State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Presented December 8, 2015 Commencement June 2016 Doctor of Philosophy dissertation of Evan Erasmo Gutierrez presented on December 8, 2015 APPROVED: Major Professor representing Environmental Sciences Director of the Environmental Sciences Graduate Program Dean of the Graduate School I understand that my dissertation will become part of the permanent collection of Oregon State University libraries. My signature below authorizes release of my dissertation to any reader upon request. Evan Erasmo Gutierrez, Author ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude to three incredibly inspirational, supportive, and reliable individuals; my committee chair, Dr. Carolyn Fonyo Boggess, my partner, Gina Caruso, and my colleague, Ellen Dorsey. This study would not have been possible without their contributions. I would also like to thank the entire SoMa Research Team of the Portland State University Sustaining Urban Places Research Lab and the EcoDistricts organization for their help and cooperation. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Chapter 1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 Motivation for the Study ................................................................................................. 5 Overview ......................................................................................................................... 7 Chapter 2 Review of Literature ........................................................................................... 8 Sustainable Development ............................................................................................... 9 Collaborative Planning .................................................................................................. 13 Civic Ecology .............................................................................................................. 14 Public-Private Partnerships ....................................................................................... 18 Neighborhood Sustainability Assessment ..................................................................... 21 Background on Spatial MCDA (GIS-MCDA) ................................................................... 25 Elements and Basic Concepts of GIS-MCDA and AHP ............................................... 30 Value Scaling, Criterion Weighting and Combination Rules ..................................... 31 Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) .................................................................................. 33 Suitability Analysis ..................................................................................................... 35 Sustainability Optimization Frameworks................................................................... 38 Summary: A Spectrum of Applications, Decision Makers, and Scales .......................... 47 Chapter 3 Methodology .................................................................................................... 52 Study Area ..................................................................................................................... 54 Data Collection .............................................................................................................. 57 Top-down Data Sources............................................................................................. 57 Bottom-up Data Sources ........................................................................................... 67 Analysis Procedure ........................................................................................................ 70 Content Analysis of Top-Down and Bottom-Up Data ............................................... 71 Analytic Hierarchy Process Methods ......................................................................... 79 Assessing the Quality of Development Indicators ..................................................... 91 Chapter 4 Results .............................................................................................................. 95 Content Analysis and AHP Results Summary ................................................................ 95 TABLE OF CONTENTS (CONTINUED) Page Top-down Documents ............................................................................................... 96 Bottom-up Documents ............................................................................................ 117 Combined AHP Matrices .......................................................................................... 136 Intercoder Reliability Testing Results ...................................................................... 144 SOURCE Analysis Mapping Results .............................................................................. 145 Individual Indicator Scores ...................................................................................... 147 Composite Criteria Scores ....................................................................................... 153 Objective Cumulative Scores ................................................................................... 157 Indicator Quality Assessment .................................................................................. 160 Chapter 5 Discussion ....................................................................................................... 164 Integrating Multi-functional Green Infrastructure with Sustainable Urban Renewal 164 Optimization of Cumulative Scores and Sustainable Development Projects ............. 170 Neighborhood Life Corridor Zone 1 SoMa’s Southwest Side .................................. 170 Neighborhood Life Corridor Zone 2 SoMa’s Southeast Side ................................... 182 Neighborhood Life Corridor Recap .......................................................................... 194 Discussion of Indicator Quality.................................................................................... 196 Chapter 6 Conclusions .................................................................................................... 198 Summary of Findings ................................................................................................... 198 Limitations of the Study and Direction for Future Study ............................................ 200 Research Design Limitations ...................................................................................