| Summary: | Public construction projects are frequently presented as
occurring in complex social, political and economic settings
described as being uncertain. In public administration, this
uncertainty is cited as a cause for shifting from the so
called "rational-comprehensive" model of policy and decision
making toward an "incremental" or "mixed-scanning" approach.
None of these models provides a panacea for dealing with the
influences of the diverse and dynamic social and political
attitudes, ethics and values that are inherent in urban
settings. Where such uncertainty becomes unmanageable
scientific experts are called upon to translate the problem
into technical or economic language that lends itself to
consideration by traditional management science analysis.
This thesis describes one such translation of an urban
transportation development project in the context of the
political and philosophical exigencies which required its
undertaking. A computer simulation approach to modelling the
operation of a two-story underground parking structure, named
the Capitol Mall Parking Structure, is described as well as
the model's results and sensitivity in coping with various
uncertainties posed by the project's decision makers. === Graduation date: 1992
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