Decisions on Social and Technological Tasks Incorporating Expression of Preference and Environmental Insult

A task of a social or technological nature is to be undertaken. There are n methods that can be used singly or in combination to accomplish the task. Several insults to the social and aesthetic factors expressing quality of life occur as a result of the task. The problem is to obtain a measure of importance for the factors and then use this to evaluate the alternatives. The paper attempts to integrate a number of components of this problem that have been dealt with extensively in the literature, in a way that provides information for the decision maker. A case study is reported and several problems needing further research are discussed.