Multi-objective, multiple participant decision support for water management in the Andarax catchment, Almeria

Water management in the Andarax river basin (Almeria, Spain) is a multi-objective, multi-participant, long-term decision-making problem that faces several challenges. Adequate water allocation needs informed decisions to meet increasing socio-economic demands while respecting the environmental integrity of this basin. Key players in the Andarax water sector include the municipality of Almeria, the irrigators involved in the intensive greenhouse agricultural sector, and booming second residences. A decision support system (DSS) is developed to rank different sustainable planning and management alternatives according to their socio-economic and environmental performance. The DSS is intimately linked to sustainability indicators and is designed through a public participation process. Indicators are linked to criteria reflecting stakeholders concerns in the 2005 field survey, such as fulfilling water demand, water price, technical and economical efficiency, social and environmental impacts. Indicators can be partly quantified after simulating the operation of the groundwater reservoir over a 20-year planning period and partly through a parallel expert evaluation process. To predict the impact of future water demand in the catchment, several development scenarios are designed to be evaluated in the DSS. The successive multi-criteria analysis of the performance indicators permits the ranking of the different management alternatives according to the multiple objectives formulated by the different sectors/participants. This allows more informed and transparent decision-making processes for the Andarax river basin, recognizing both the socio-economic and environmental dimensions of water resources management.     

Application of fuzzy multi-attribute decision-making to select and to rank the post-mining land-use

The selection of an optimal reclamation method is one of the most important portions of the surface mining design. There are many factors in this problem which seriously influence decision-making. The fuzzy set theory was applied due to the effect of uncertain parameters involved in the decision-making process. Therefore, the fuzzy multi-attribute decision-making method was proposed. The aim of this study is to use the fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution method for ranking the optimal post-mining land-use and the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process method in order to determine the weights of each criterion. This approach is applied to the surface coal mine by employing 28 criteria which influence the decision-making procedure. The TOPSIS and AHP methods have been the most used methods of mining decision-making and demonstrated their ability to make critical decisions. By evaluating the alternatives and considering effective criteria with proposed methods, agriculture is the optimal post-mining land-use.     

Multi-criteria decision-making and life cycle assessment model for optimal product selection: case study of knee support

Selection of the optimal product, where several products’ aspects are expressed through criteria, is a multi-criteria decision-making problem. Besides technical, exploitational, functional, structural, market and aesthetic criteria, nowadays, environmental criteria are inevitable aspects of a modern product. Environmental product properties can be successfully evaluated with a life cycle assessment. This paper proposes a multi-criteria decision-making model for optimal product assessment that uses environmental criteria obtained from a life cycle assessment. The proposed model presents a comprehensive approach that aims to overcome complex decision-making problems for optimal product selection, where special attention is given to the product’s environmental impact. Verification of the proposed multi-criteria decision-making and life cycle assessment model was performed on the case study of optimal knee support selection. By changing the criteria weights in multi-criteria decision-making, a sensitivity analysis was performed. The model output results show the product alternatives ranking that supports decision-making in optimal product selection.     

A new model of geo-environmental impact assessment of mining: a multiple-criteria assessment method integrating Fuzzy-AHP with fuzzy synthetic ranking

A new evaluation model for geo-environmental impact assessment of mining (GEIAM) is proposed. The evaluation framework in this model considers three groups of criteria, namely, geo-hazards risks, environmental risks, and resource damages. Fuzzy-analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was used to establish a multiple-criteria evaluation system and simultaneously command weighting to avoid vagueness and ambiguity in expert judgment. Membership function was employed to deal with the vagueness boundary problem of indices scoring and to help complete the ultimate fuzzy synthetic ranking. The model expresses the evaluation results with an integrated objective ranking and three criteria ranking. It was tentatively applied to assess an opencast limestone mine. The results indicated that the indices sequences were consistent with the mine background and the expert professional experience and better revealed the impact of geo-hazards risks. Specific assessment factors such as geo-hazards potential, engineering geological condition, and hydrogeological condition were prioritized for further improvement. Compared with existing GEIAM evaluation methods, the proposed assessment model focuses more on expert experience and judgment, breaks through the limitation of local estimation to variable attributes and, most importantly, satisfies the multi-purpose requirements to incorporate real considerations together for mining safety, geo-environmental protection, and natural resource conservation.     

An intuitionistic fuzzy Choquet integral operator based methodology for environmental criteria integrated supplier evaluation process

Supplier evaluation problems deal with selecting appropriate suppliers considering multiple criteria, which may be related with qualitative and quantitative aspects. Traditional supplier selection criteria contain criteria such as cost, capacity, delivery reliability, flexibility, and responsiveness, etc. However, due to the increasing level of environmental problems, it is a necessity to take environmental criteria into account together with the traditional decision criteria in the supplier evaluation processes of companies. Considering this necessity, this paper proposes a decision making methodology for environmental criteria integrated supplier evaluation processes. A methodology based on intuitionistic fuzzy Choquet integral operator is utilized to take into account vagueness of the decision environment and the interactions among the criteria. This methodology also provides the consideration of the satisfaction and dissatisfaction degrees of alternatives for each criterion with the help of intuitionistic fuzzy values. In addition, the effects of the criteria weights to the final ranking of suppliers are analyzed via sensitivity analyses.     

An interval matrix method used to optimize the decision matrix in AHP technique for land subsidence susceptibility mapping

The analytical hierarchy process (AHP) is one of the most effective methods for criteria ranking/weighting to have been successfully incorporated into GIS analyses. We present a new method for optimizing pairwise comparison decision-making matrices in AHP method, which has been developed on the basis of an interval pairwise comparison matrix (IPCM) derived from expert knowledge. The method has been used for criteria ranking in land subsidence susceptibility mapping (LSSM) as a practical test case, for which an interval matrix was generated by pairwise comparison. To compare the capability of the AHP method (a traditional approach) with that of the proposed IPCM method (a novel approach), 11 creations of LSSM were ranked using each approach in turn. The criteria weightings obtained were then used to produce LSSM maps based on each of these approaches. The results were tested against a data set of known land subsidence occurrences, indicating an improvement in accuracy of about 14% in the LSSM map that was developed using the IPCM method. This improvement was achieved by minimizing the uncertainty associated with criteria ranking/weighting in a traditional AHP and could form a basis for future research into minimizing the uncertainty in weightings derived using the AHP method. Our results will be of considerable importance for researchers involved in GIS-based multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) and those dealing with GIS-based spatial decision-making methods.     

Landfill site selection by decision-making tools based on fuzzy multi-attribute decision-making method

Landfill site selection is a complex and time-consuming process, which requires evaluation of several factors where many different attributes are taken into account. Decision makers always have some difficulties in making the right decision in the multiple attribute environments. After identifying candidate sites, these sites should be ranked using decision-making methods. This study applies Chang’s fuzzy AHP-based multiple attribute decision-making (MADM) method for selection of the best site of landfills based on a set of decision criteria. The Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) was designed to make pairwise comparisons of selected criteria by domain experts for assigning weights to the decision criteria. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is used to make pairwise comparisons and assign weights to the decision criteria. It is easier for a decision maker to describe a value for an alternative by using linguistic terms and fuzzy numbers. In the fuzzy-based AHP method, the rating of each alternative was described using the expression of triangular fuzzy membership functions. Once the global weights of the criteria is calculated by AHP, they are incorporated into the decision matrices composed by decision maker and passed to fuzzy-AHP method which is used to determine preference order of siting alternatives. In this study, a computer program based on the Chang’s fuzzy method was also developed in MATLAB environment for ranking and selecting the landfill site. As an example of the proposed methodology, four different hypothetical areas were chosen and implemented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the program. By using this program, the precision was improved in comparison with traditional methods and computational time required for ranking and selecting the suitable landfill site was significantly reduced.     

Decision making under uncertainty using a qualitative TOPSIS method for selecting sustainable energy alternatives

Multi-criteria decision-making methods support decision makers in all stages of the decision-making process by providing useful data. However, criteria are not always certain as uncertainty is a feature of the real world. MCDM methods under uncertainty and fuzzy systems are accepted as suitable techniques in conflicting problems that cannot be represented by numerical values, in particular in energy analysis and planning. In this paper, a modified TOPSIS method for multi-criteria group decision-making with qualitative linguistic labels is proposed. This method addresses uncertainty considering different levels of precision. Each decision maker’s judgment on the performance of alternatives with respect to each criterion is expressed by qualitative linguistic labels. The new method takes into account linguistic data provided by the decision makers without any previous aggregation. Decision maker judgments are incorporated into the proposed method to generate a complete ranking of alternatives. An application in energy planning is presented as an illustrative case example in which energy policy alternatives are ranked. Seven energy alternatives under nine criteria were evaluated according to the opinion of three environmental and energy experts. The weights of the criteria are determined by fuzzy AHP, and the alternatives are ranked using qualitative TOPSIS. The proposed approach is compared with a modified fuzzy TOPSIS method, showing the advantages of the proposed approach when dealing with linguistic assessments to model uncertainty and imprecision. Although the new approach requires less cognitive effort to decision makers, it yields similar results.     

Environmental impact assessment framework by integrating scientific analysis and subjective perception

Environmental impact assessment is widely recognized as an effective tool for supporting the sustainable development of the environment through policy, plan and program decision-making processes. Traditional approach of environmental impact assessment generally focuses on scientific analysis and neglects subjective utilities on the project development. This paper proposes a framework of environmental impact assessment process by integrating subjective perception and scientific analysis. This framework suggests that environmental impacts and their consequent effects are analyzed and calculated based on the inventory analysis, but the non-market loss arising from the construction of the sensitive facility is estimated by contingent valuation method and the relative importance of affecting groups in affecting the ongoing of project development is evaluated by analytical hierarchy process. Eventually, a mathematical model is presented to determine the optimal compensation amount under a targeted refusal rate. Also, a case example is presented to illustrate this approach that integrates the objectively scientific assessment for potentially environmental impacts and individual subjective perception on the non-market value of environmental damages arising from the project development.     

Decision support method for GHG emission management in industries

Keeping temperature rise well below 2 °C is Paris Climate Agreement’s main commitment and corporate-level participation will be crucial to achieve national mitigation targets. Hence, companies should adopt measures that allow them to adapt to upcoming scenarios where low-carbon production is expected to become mandatory and a great competitive advantage. However, mitigation strategies cannot be evaluated without consideration of subjective environmental criteria. Consequently, lack of decision support methodologies for climate change evaluation in industries is a barrier for innovation. Aiming at consideration of non-monetary aspects, we develop a support method that incorporates costs, benefits, opportunities and risks related to climate change in manufacturing industries. First, we compared the most relevant multi-criteria decision analysis methodologies and identified an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) as the most suitable for ranking corporate climate change strategies. Then, we collected global analysis criteria from the most important socially responsible investment indices, and climate change scientific studies. To adapt these criteria to the AHP method, each criterion was sorted into benefits, opportunities, costs or risks hierarchies. Proposed method was efficient for assessing long-term subjective criteria and ranking alternatives for GHG emission management in two large manufacturing companies. A sensitivity analysis of the outcome revealed its consistency and flexibility for ranking alternatives and weighting criteria. Finally, the method is not limited to a particular type of industry and it can be adapted to other areas, such as service companies, sanitation or public sector.     

A hybrid multiple criteria decision-making model for the sustainable management of aquifers

In this study, a hybrid multiple criteria decision-making (HMCDM) model was proposed for prioritizing scenarios for managing groundwater use from an aquifer. Three scenarios, including the construction of subsurface dams, the use of artificial recharge and reducing groundwater use by 5% and 10% were considered to assess the most sustainable development approach. The examined MCDM models were: simple additive weighting (SAW); and MTAHP which is a hybridization of the modified TOPSIS and the analytic hierarchy process models. The criteria proposed for determining the order preference of the scenarios included the sustainable development index (I_U) and a modified water exploitation index as well as economic, social and environmental indices. To assess the technical and economic impacts of the management scenarios, modeling of the aquifer was simulated for a 3-year period using these scenarios. The results of the assessment indicated that the scenario of water withdrawal reduction by 10% was the best scenario determined in MTAHP followed by a reduction in groundwater withdrawal by 5%, the use of artificial recharge and the construction of a subsurface dam, respectively. The difference between the results of MTAHP and SAW models was in their first and third ranks, in such a way artificial recharge scored the first rank in SAW model and the third rank in MTAHP model, also withdrawal reduction by 10% scored third rank in SAW model and first rank in MTAHP model. The results of these two models have demonstrated that the construction of a subsurface dam in Shahrekord aquifer is not an appropriate management option. According to the results of this study, MTAHP models can be applied for ranking feasible management scenarios in aquifers using the redefined sustainable development and modified groundwater exploitation indices introduced in this study.     

A multi-criteria decision-making approach for evaluating carbon performance of suppliers in the electronics industry

Although interest in addressing environmental perspectives in supplier management is rising, incorporating the issue of carbon management into supplier selection in green supply chain is still considerably scarce. This study presents a model for evaluating carbon performance of suppliers by utilizing multiple-criteria decision-making. Through literature reviews and expert opinions, 13 criteria within carbon performance are identified for evaluating suppliers. Subsequently, the analytic network process is utilized to determine the relative weights of each criterion. Finally, the VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje technique is employed to evaluate carbon performance of suppliers and compromise solution under each of the evaluation criteria. An illustrative example in an electronics company is presented to demonstrate how to select the most appropriate supplier in accordance with carbon management. To be effective in mitigating carbon risk across the supply chain, the proposed hybrid model can help firms evaluate carbon performance of suppliers for facilitating low carbon supply chain.     

Selection of wastewater treatment process based on the analytical hierarchy process and fuzzy analytical hierarchy process methods

This paper presents an application of the analytical hierarchy process and fuzzy analytical hierarchy process methods for selecting the best wastewater treatment process. The analytical hierarchy process is one of the best ways for deciding among the complex criteria structure in different levels, and the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process is a synthetic extension of the classical method when the fuzziness of the decision makers are considered. After reviewing aerobic treatment processes operated in Iran’s industrial estates and determining the main criteria used for treatment process evaluation, they are arranged in a hierarchy structure. Selection of the best wastewater treatment process is a multi-criteria decision making problem. Conventional methods are inadequate for dealing with the imprecise or vague nature of linguistic assessment. To overcome this difficulty, the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process is proposed for dealing with the vagueness of decision makers’ judgments. The alternatives consist of extended aeration, absorption bio-oxidation, integrated fixed-film activated sludge, sequencing batch reactor, aerated lagoon. Based on the general condition of industrial estate’s wastewater treatment plants, technical/administrative, economic and environmental criteria and their sub-criteria are weighted and then criteria evaluated and priorities of alternatives have been done by analytical hierarchy process and fuzzy analytical hierarchy process methods by the use of triangular fuzzy numbers. Finally, selection of the best process and ranking of these five processes are carried out by these foregoing methods, and some sensitivity analyses are conducted to show the results’ sensitiveness to the changes of the weights of the evaluation criteria.     

Regional non-hazardous landfill site selection by integrating fuzzy logic, AHP and geographic information systems

This study presents a geographic information systems-based multi-criteria site selection of non-hazardous regional landfill in Polog Region, Macedonia. The multi-criteria decision framework integrates legal requirements and physical constraints that relate to environmental and economic concerns and builds a hierarchy model for landfill suitability. The methodology is used for preliminary assessment of the most suitable landfill sites by combining fuzzy set theory and analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The fuzzy set theory is used to standardize criteria using different fuzzy membership functions while the AHP is used to establish the relative importance of the criteria. The AHP makes pairwise comparisons of relative importance between hierarchy elements grouped by environmental and economic decision criteria. The landfill suitability is achieved by applying weighted linear combination that uses a comparison matrix to aggregate different importance scenarios associated with environmental and economic objectives. The results from the study suggested that a least suitable landfill area of 1.0% from the total is generated when environmental and economic objectives are valued equally while a most suitable landfill area of 1.8% area is generated when the economic objective is valued higher. Such results are aimed for enhancement of regional landfill site selection in the country that is compliant with modern EU standards.     

Optimizing post-mining land use for pit area in open-pit mining using fuzzy decision making method

Open-pit mining method has severe environmental impacts which should be prevented, monitored, controlled, and reduced by mined-land reclamation process. After mine closure, a permanent post-mining land use should be implemented as an appropriate choice for using different sections of mined land. The most appropriate alternative of post-mining land use for each section of mined land is presented as the optimum post-mining land use. Pit area among different sections of mined land has more significant effects on the environment and also on defining the optimum post-mining land use for other sections of mined land. Though there are several alternatives and criteria for defining the optimum post-mining land use, the multi-attribute decision-making methods can be efficient techniques in this regard. The nature of the effective parameters used for defining the optimum post-mining land use is the same as Fuzzy numbers including incremental changes without definite limits. Thus, application of the Fuzzy multi-attribute decision-making modeling can produce more reliable results than that of other techniques. As well, pair-wise comparisons and judgments through Fuzzy numbers have proper consistency with the nature of the effective parameters; therefore, a model is developed to attain the optimum post-mining land use for pit area through Fuzzy analytical hierarchy processing. As a case study, the model was implemented in Sungun copper mine in the Northwest of Iran. Forestry?Clumber production was defined as the optimum post-mining land use containing the greatest relative importance coefficient 3.019 for the pit area in this mine.     

GIS-based multicriteria analysis: an approach to select priority areas for preservation in the Ahaggar National Park,Algeria

This paper presents a geographic information system (GIS)-based multicriteria decision-making approach for biodiversity preservation of the Ahaggar National Park in Algeria. This tool named spatial decision-making aid (SDMA) enables decision makers to evaluate the relative priorities of conserving the biodiversity in protected areas basing on a set of preferences, criteria and indicators of the area. In this study, we have developed conceptual and methodological solutions to integrate outranking methods (such as elimination and choice to translate reality TRI, preference ranking organizational methods and analytical hierarchy process) of multicriteria analysis in the GIS software to enhance its potential as tools of spatial decision support in land management problems. We integrated the results and other data relevant studied area in a GIS as a starting point for our SDMA prototype for resources management. Through the application, we have designed functionalities that allow producing maps of areas which needed urgent preservation. These methods are more appropriate to decision-making problems and their integration into GIS software (ArcView GIS 3.2 software from Environmental Systems Research Institute) that constitutes a powerful tool of spatial decision-making aid.     

TISS: a decision framework for tailing impoundment site selection

Tailing dam is one of the most important mining operations interface with surrounding environment even as long as many years after ore reserve exhausted. Therefore, appropriate design and management respect to future limitations of environmental regulations is required. Recently, effect of multiple criteria on tailing impoundment site selection makes it complex as the conventional procedures unable to answer. The systematic approach of multi attribute decision-making helps decision-makers select the most preferable decision and provide the basis of a decision support system. This paper developed new strategy based on fuzzy multi attribute group decision-making methods including: technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution and analytical hierarchy process in fuzzy group environment. A hypothetical case is processed to demonstrate the strategy’s efficiency and results are compared and ranked so that the most preferable option is identified.     

Minimization of environmental risk of landfill site using fuzzy logic, analytical hierarchy process, and weighted linear combination methodology in a geographic information system environment

This paper presents a GIS-based multi-criteria site selection for municipal solid waste landfilling in Ariana Region, Tunisia. Based on the regional characteristics, literature related to disposal sites and waste management, local expert, data availability and assessments via questionnaires, 15 constraints, and 5 factors were built in the hierarchical structure for landfill suitability by multi-criteria evaluation. The factors are divided into environmental and socio-economic groups. The methodology is used for preliminary assessment of the 20-year most useful lifetime suitable landfilling sites by combining fuzzy set theory, weighted linear combination (WLC) and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) in a GIS environment. The criteria standardization is undertaken by application of different fuzzy membership functions. The fuzzy membership functions shape and their control points are chosen through assessment of expert opinion. The weightings of each selection criterion are assigned depending on the relative importance using the AHP methodology. The WLC approach is applied for alternative landfill sites prioritization. The results of this study showed five potential candidate sites, which are generated when the environmental factors are valued higher than socio-economic factors. These sites are ranked in descending order using the ELECTRE III method. However, the final decision will require further detailed geotechnical and hydrogeological analyses toward the protection of groundwater as well as surface water.     

Deriving preference order of post-mining land-uses through MLSA framework: application of an outranking technique

This study intends to take advantage of a previously developed framework for mined land suitability analysis (MLSA) consisted of economical, social, technical and mine site factors to achieve a partial and also a complete pre-order of feasible post-mining land-uses. Analysis by an outranking multi-attribute decision-making (MADM) technique, called PROMETHEE (preference ranking organization method for enrichment evaluation), was taken into consideration because of its clear advantages on the field of MLSA as compared with MADM ranking techniques. Application of the proposed approach on a mined land can be completed through some successive steps. First, performance of the MLSA attributes is scored locally by each individual decision maker (DM). Then the assigned performance scores are normalized and the deviation amplitudes of non-dominated alternatives are calculated. Weights of the attributes are calculated by another MADM technique namely, analytical hierarchy process (AHP) in a separate procedure. Using the Gaussian preference function beside the weights, the preference indexes of the land-use alternatives are obtained. Calculation of the outgoing and entering flows of the alternatives and one by one comparison of these values will lead to partial pre-order of them and calculation of the net flows, will lead to a ranked preference for each land-use. At the final step, utilizing the PROMETHEE group decision support system which incorporates judgments of all the DMs, a consensual ranking can be derived. In this paper, preference order of post-mining land-uses for a hypothetical mined land has been derived according to judgments of one DM to reveal applicability of the proposed approach.     

Evaluation of basin environmental vulnerability: the weighted method compared to the compromise method

Environmental vulnerability analysis is an important issue in conducting sustainable basin management. In our past study, we developed a set of criteria from three categories of factors (geographic, hydrologic, and societal) for assessing basin environmental vulnerability. According to a survey and the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) analysis, seven criteria were selected as a set of criteria, and the weights of these criteria were determined. This study adopts two different multiple criteria analysis (MCA) methods, the weighted method and the compromise method, to integrate the criteria and evaluate the environmental vulnerability of major basins in Taiwan. The results show that the Cho-Shui River Basin has the highest environmental vulnerability, no matter which method is used. However, the environmental vulnerability of the Ta-Chia River Basin is higher than that of the Tan-Shui River Basin and the Tseng-Wen River Basin when considering the measure of individual regret by the modified VIKOR method, which generates a different ranking than that of the weighted method. Stricter land-use restrictions should be placed on those basins that have higher environmental vulnerability. According to the analysis, the results of basin environmental vulnerability, land-use classification strategies can be created.