Criterion of distance between technical programming and socio-economic priority

The problem considered in this paper consists in comparing two partial preorders coming from two quite different points of view. For this purpose, a criterion of distance is proposed. Final form of the criterion is justified by a set of logical and significance conditions. The use of this criterion is illustrated by an example of regional water supply system programming, where the first preorder comes from socio-economic priority and the second one from technical programming.