(U.S. Department of Agriculture) More Effectively Define and Evaluate SAP Implementation Approaches (SAP Experts) Integrated evaluation of a community's sustanaibility in terms of environment, economy, society, institution, and culture. Accelerated Bridge Construction Decision Making Tool to assist in determining the viability of accelerated bridge construction (ABC) over traditional construction methods and in selecting appropriate construction and contracting strategies on a case-by-case basis. AHP is sometimes used in designing highly specific procedures for particular situations, such as the rating of buildings by historical significance. It was recently applied to a project that uses video footage to assess the condition of highways in Virginia. Highway engineers first used it to determine the optimum scope of the project, and then to justify its budget to lawmakers. The weights of the AHP judgement matrix may be corrected with the ones calculated through the Entropy Method. This variant of the AHP method is called AHP-EM. Education and scholarly research Though using the analytic hierarchy process requires no specialized academic training, it is considered an important subject in many institutions of higher learning, including schools of engineering and graduate schools of business. It is a particularly important subject in the quality field, and is taught in many specialized courses including Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma, and QFD. The value of the AHP is recognized in developed and developing countries around the world. China is an example—nearly a hundred Chinese universities offer courses in AHP, and many doctoral students choose AHP as the subject of their research and dissertations. Over 900 papers have been published on the subject in China, and there is at least one Chinese scholarly journal devoted exclusively to AHP. The International Symposium on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (ISAHP) holds biennial meetings of academics and practitioners interested in the field. A wide range of topics is covered. Those in 2005 ranged from "Establishing Payment Standards for Surgical Specialists", to "Strategic Technology Roadmapping", to "Infrastructure Reconstruction in Devastated Countries". At the 2007 meeting in Valparaíso, Chile, over 90 papers were presented from 19 countries, including the US, Germany, Japan, Chile, Malaysia, and Nepal. A similar number of papers were presented at the 2009 symposium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, when 28 countries were represented. Subjects of the papers included Economic Stabilization in Latvia, Portfolio Selection in the Banking Sector, Wildfire Management to Help Mitigate Global Warming, and Rural Microprojects in Nepal. Use As can be seen in