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International Journal of Environment Science and Technology
Center for Environment and Energy Research and Studies (CEERS)
ISSN: 1735-1472 EISSN: 1735-1472
Vol. 13, No. 6, 2016, pp. 1419-1432
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Bioline Code: st16134
Full paper language: English
Document type: Research Article
Document available free of charge
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International Journal of Environment Science and Technology, Vol. 13, No. 6, 2016, pp. 1419-1432
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Decision making under uncertainty using a qualitative TOPSIS method for selecting sustainable energy alternatives
Afsordegan, A.; Sánchez, M.; Agell, N.; Zahedi, S. & Cremades, L. V.
Abstract
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.
Keywords
Multi-criteria decision making; Linguistic labels; TOPSIS; Qualitative reasoning; Energy planning
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