Use of a multi-criteria decision support tool to prioritize reconstruction projects in a post-disaster phase

In this paper we propose a generic decision support model applied through a software module to automatically assign a priority value to sets of reconstruction projects in a post-disaster phase. The objective is to support the decision-makers that are not experts in post-disaster management and that have to take complex decisions related to many parameters: evolution of the disaster effects, population needs in different vital sectors, etc. The module is based on an existing multi-criteria decision-support tool and on a generic model dedicated to the evaluation of sets of reconstruction projects. The module first evaluates the relevance of each reconstruction project, and next evaluates the relevance of sets of reconstruction projects taking into account the context and the population needs. It implicitly represents synergies among projects.