USING VALUES IN PLANNING WASTE-WATER FACILITIES FOR METROPOLITAN SEATTLE

This paper uses the fundamental values of decision makers to guide a l ong-term wastewater planning process at Seattle Metro, a major utility district. Multiattribute value assessment is used to elicit the objec tives of several elected officials and other key decision makers. The results are structured into a fundamental objectives hierarchy and a m eans-ends objectives network. A set of measures to indicate the perfor mance of planning alternatives in terms of the fundamental objectives is developed. Preliminary value tradeoffs between objectives are elici ted from several elected officials. The results of these steps are use ful for many aspects of long-term planning: facilitating communication about values and priorities; designing attractive alternatives that a re more likely to serve stakeholder interests; identifying information needed to evaluate alternatives; clarifying the relative importance o f information about different impacts; providing a basis for quantitat ive evaluation of the alternatives with multiple objective analysis; a nd focusing attention on key tradeoffs that will affect the choice of alternatives.