Examining the sustainability impacts of mega sports events : fuzzy modelling as a new integrated appraisal system

Unlike other aspects of daily life and work, the pursuit of sustainable development in our communities requires an understanding of complex and sometimes counterintuitive processes that unfold over a long period of time. In order to develop these ideas it is necessary to find a situation, which is both complex and time constrained. Such a situation is found with mega-sport events and their host cities/regions. Many decision-making and problem-solving tasks are too complex to be understood quantitatively, however, people succeed by using knowledge that is imprecise rather than precise. Fuzzy logic is a powerful problem-solving methodology with a myriad of applications in embedded control and information processing. The authors report on progress towards their long-term objective of the development of an integrated appraisal system that can be considered as a new language; a new way of communication between academics, social, environmental scientists, politicians, decision-makers and the general public.