Qualitative multicriteria analysis

Qualitative multicriteria analysis is more informal than quantitative analysis. The assessment and rating of different product alternatives is made by an expert panel. The principal advantage of this method is that it is likely to result in a judgement. In addition it allows the inclusion of quantitative aspects in the decision process. However, it is not well suited to comparisons of more than a few products, since the amount of information becomes overwhelming. 

Quantitative multicriteria analysis defines and applies weighting factors to the environmental profile to permit aggregation of the quantitative part of the inventory table into an unambiguous single score. This score is then used to rate different product alternatives. The advantages with this method are that the decision process is easily reproducible and that product comparison is simplified. The risk is that the method of aggregation may imply a scientific accuracy that not necessarily exists. Qualitative aspects of the impacts can not be included in the obtained score. These must be evaluated separately. 

A multi-criteria decision analysis tool - IDS Multicriteria Assessor is further used to deal with the multi-criteria decision of choosing among several strategies for managing 12 kV MV air insulated switch-disconnectors. The software allows for both quantitative and qualitative information with rmcer-tainties and subjectivity - thus uncertainty in data and imprecision in judgments. 

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