Risk Assessment: framework for combining CBA and MCDA

This article aims to set a framework for the Decision Support System (DSS) of projects/portfolios, through the combination of the traditional Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) and the more recent Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). Thus, the scope is to provide decison makers a tool that considers monetary goals (e.g., construction costs,NPV, BCR), as also non-monetary strategic goals (e.g., environmental sustainability, social development). The article will also consider the limitations of this framework, in particular during the MCDA assessment, providing suggestions to mitigate the difficulties related to the weighting profile and criteria weighting, and to facilitate the decision makers during the process of project/portfolio appraisal . In order to provide an effective and appliable tool for the reader, this article will focus on the application of the REMBRANDT technique during the MCDA, and then on the COSIMA approach, used to combine the results from CBA and MCDA.