Constraint and optimization techniques for supporting policy making

Modeling the policy making process is a very challenging task. To the best of our knowledge the most widely used technique in this setting is agent-based simulation. Each agent represents an individual entity (e.g., citizen, stakeholder, company, public association, public body). The agent interaction enables emerging behaviours to be observed and taken into account in the policy making process itself. We claim that another perspective should be considered in modeling policy issues, that is the global perspective. Each public body has global objectives, constraints and guidelines that have to be combined to take decisions. The policy making process should be at the same time consistent with constraints, optimal with respect to given objectives and assessed to avoid negative impacts on the environment, economy and society. We propose in this paper a constraint-based model for the global policy making process and we apply the devised model to the regional planning activity. A case study in the field of energy plan is used to evaluate the proposed model. Clearly an interaction with agent-based simulation is desirable and could provide important feedback to the global model. This aspect is the subject of current research.