Introducing functional classification theory to land use planning by means of decision tables

This paper contributes to the conceptualisation and analysis of double-sided matching problems, taking the land use planning problem as an example. It does so by introducing functional classification theory at the knowledge level, the symbol level and the system level of a DSS. This theory explicitly expresses the methodological viewpoint of relational realism. At the knowledge level this implies defining knowledge on the basis of matching the intension and extension of concepts. At the symbol level it deals with knowledge representation and here decision tables are advanced and formally introduced. At the system level the formalism used at the symbol level is implemented to develop a relational matching DSS.