Geoinformatic surveillance hotspot prioritization using linear extensions of partially ordered sets for multi-criterion ranking with multiple indicators
G. P. Patil, C. Taillie · International Conference on Digital Government Research · 2004
The prioritization system of the geoinformatic surveillance project is concerned with the question of ranking a finite collection of objects when a suite of indicator values is available for each member of the collection. The objects can be represented as a cloud of points in indicator space, but the different indicators (coordinate axes) typically convey different comparative messages and there is no unique way to rank the objects while taking all indicators into account. A conventional solution is to assign a composite numerical score to each object by combining the indicator information in some fashion. Consciously or otherwise, every such composite involves judgments (often arbitrary or controversial) about tradeoffs or substitutability among indicators.