The Fifth International Conference on Multiple Criteria Decision Making, not suprisingly, had several objectives. First, it aimed at beinq a forum for exchange and intensive discussion of recent ideas on theory and practice of MCDM, following the now well-established tradition of the previous meetings in the series, organized by H. Thiriez and S. Zionts in Jouy-en-Josas (1975), S. Zionts in Buffalo (1977), G. Fandel and T. Gal in Hagen/Konigswinter (1979) and J. Morse in Newark (1980). Second, closer contacts Nere desired between participants in these meetings and other active groups in the field, prominent among which is the European Working Group on Multiple Criteria Decision Aid. Third, participation of senior or junior researchers who had recently developped important new methodolo0ies, such as the Analytical Hierarchy Process, was actively sought for. Fourth, a synthesis of the rapidly expanding field of MCDM was to be made through selective surveys by leading researchers in the various areas it comprises. Fifth, cross-fertilization and multidisciplinary research was to be encouraged through presentations on the connections between MCDM and mathematics, economics, game theory, computer science and other subjects. Sixth, much emphasis was to be given to real-world applications of MCDM, particularly large scale ones and/or pioneering work in new fields. The present volume reflects the general agreement observed among participants that these goals were largely attained.

Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis: State of the Art Surveys provides survey articles and references of the seminal or state-of-the-art research on MCDA. The material covered ranges from the foundations of MCDA, over various MCDA methodologies (outranking methods, multiattribute utility and value theories, non-classical approaches) to multiobjective mathematical programming, MCDA applications, and software. This vast amount of material is organized in 8 parts, with a total of 25 chapters. More than 2000 references are listed.

Multicriterion Decision in Management: Principles and Practice is the first multicriterion analysis book devoted exclusively to discrete multicriterion decision making. Typically, multicriterion analysis is used in two distinct frameworks: Firstly, there is multiple criteria linear programming, which is an extension of the results of linear programming and its associated algorithms. Secondly, there is discrete multicriterion decision making, which is concerned with choices among a finite number of possible alternatives such as projects, investments, decisions, etc. This is the focus of this book. The book concentrates on the basic principles in the domain of discrete multicriterion analysis, and examines each of these principles in terms of their properties and their implications. In multicriterion decision analysis, any optimum in the strict sense of the term does not exist. Rather, multicriterion decision making utilizes tools, methods, and thinking to examine several solutions, each having their advantages and disadvantages, depending on one's point of view. Actually, various methods exist for reaching a good choice in a multicriterion setting and even a complete ranking of the alternatives. The book describes and compares these methods, so-called `aggregation methods', with their advantages and their shortcomings. Clearly, organizations are becoming more complex, and it is becoming harder and harder to disregard complexity of points of view, motivations, and objectives. The day of the single objective (profit, social environment, etc. ) is over and the wishes of all those involved in all their diversity must be taken into account. To do this, a basic knowledge of multicriterion decision analysis is necessary. The objective of this book is to supply that knowledge and enable it to be applied. The book is intended for use by practitioners (managers, consultants), researchers, and students in engineering and business.

These Proceedings report the scientific results of an International Workshop on Large-Scale Modelling and Interactive Decision Analysis organized Jointly by the System and Decision Sciences Program of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA, located in Laxenburg, Austria), and the Institute for Informatics of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR (located in Berlin, GDR). The Workshop was held at a historically well-known place - the Wartburg Castl- near Eisenach (GDR). (Here Martin Luther translated the Bible into German.) More than fifty scientists representing thirteen countries participated. This Workshop is one of a series of meetings organizE!d by or In collaboration with IIASA about which two of the Lecture Notes In Economics and Mathematical Systems have already reported (Voi. 229 and Vol. 246). This time the aim of the meeting was to discuss methodological and practical problems associated with the modelling of large-scale systems and new approaches In interactive decision analysis based on advanced information processing systems.

The generalized area of multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) can be defined as the body of methods and procedures by which the concern for multiple conflicting criteria can be formally incorporated into the analytical process. MCDM consists mostly of two branches, multiple criteria optimization and multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA). While MCDA is typically concerned with multiple criteria problems that have a small number of alternatives often in an environment of uncertainty (location of an airport, type of drug rehabilitation program), multiple criteria optimization is typically directed at problems formulated within a mathematical programming framework, but with a stack of objectives instead of just one (river basin management, engineering component design, product distribution). It is about the most modern treatment of multiple criteria optimization that this book is concerned. I look at this book as a nicely organized and well-rounded presentation of what I view as ”new wave” topics in multiple criteria optimization. Looking back to the origins of MCDM, most people agree that it was not until about the early 1970s that multiple criteria optimization c- gealed as a field. At this time, and for about the following fifteen years, the focus was on theories of multiple objective linear programming that subsume conventional (single criterion) linear programming, algorithms for characterizing the efficient set, theoretical vector-maximum dev- opments, and interactive procedures.

J. CIimaco and C. H. Antunes After the pleasure which has been to host the community of researchers and practitioners in the area of multicriteria analysis (MA) in Coimbra in August 1994, this volume of proceedings based on the papers presented at the conference is the last step of that venture. Even though this may not be the appropriate place we cannot resist, however, the temptation to express herein some brief feelings about the conference. Almost everything concerning the conference organisation has been "handcrafted" by a small number of people, with the advantages and disadvantages that this approach generates. Our first word of acknowledgement is of course due to those who have had a permanent and active role in the multiple aspects which make the success of a conference: Maria Joao Alves, Carlos Henggeler Antunes (who is a co author of this introduction since he has closely collaborated with me in the scientific programme), Joao Paulo Costa, Luis Dias (who greatly contributed to the organisation of this volume) and Paulo Melo, as well as Leonor Dias, from the Faculty of Economics, who has shown an outstanding dedication. To those who collaborated with the organisers in the framework of their professional activity, special thanks due to Adelina whose dedication greatly exceeded her duties. As you probably know from your own experience every small detail of the conference organisation required a lot of "sweating", but the atmosphere of joy and friendship then generated has been a generous "pay-off".

This second volume of the Handbook presents professional surveys of all the important topics in urban economics. The first section contains 6 surveys on locational analysis, the second, 5 surveys of specific urban markets, and the third part presents 5 surveys of government policy issues. The book brings together exhaustive research by distinguished scholars from many countries. It is the only complete survey volume of urban economics and should serve as a reference volume to scholars and graduate students for many years. For more information on the Handbooks in Economics series, please see our home page on http://www.elsevier.nl/locate/hes--

This book presents selected papers from an international workshop devoted tothe theory, techniques and tools of decision analysis and support. Major trends in the development of this field are stressed, such as the tendency to place the final user of a decision support system in the center of attention, or an emerging connection between tools and software environments for modeling and for decision support. The volume is acontinuation of the reports on earlier meetings which were published in the same series.

Problems with multiple objectives and criteria are generally known as multiple criteria optimization or multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) problems. So far, these types of problems have typically been modelled and solved by means of linear programming. However, many real-life phenomena are of a nonlinear nature, which is why we need tools for nonlinear programming capable of handling several conflicting or incommensurable objectives. In this case, methods of traditional single objective optimization and linear programming are not enough; we need new ways of thinking, new concepts, and new methods - nonlinear multiobjective optimization. Nonlinear Multiobjective Optimization provides an extensive, up-to-date, self-contained and consistent survey, review of the literature and of the state of the art on nonlinear (deterministic) multiobjective optimization, its methods, its theory and its background. The amount of literature on multiobjective optimization is immense. The treatment in this book is based on approximately 1500 publications in English printed mainly after the year 1980. Problems related to real-life applications often contain irregularities and nonsmoothnesses. The treatment of nondifferentiable multiobjective optimization in the literature is rather rare. For this reason, this book contains material about the possibilities, background, theory and methods of nondifferentiable multiobjective optimization as well. This book is intended for both researchers and students in the areas of (applied) mathematics, engineering, economics, operations research and management science; it is meant for both professionals and practitioners in many different fields of application. The intention has been to provide a consistent summary that may help in selecting an appropriate method for the problem to be solved. It is hoped the extensive bibliography will be of value to researchers.