An application of OLAP/GIS-Fuzzy AHP-TOPSIS methodology for decision making: Location selection for landfill of industrial wastes as a case study

Abstract

The location selection for Landfill of Industrial Wastes (LIW) is a very significant task in waste management studies, which has significant impacts on sustainable development of the region. Furthermore, the selection of the appropriate and efficient sites for LIWs is an important multi-criteria decision making problem. The present document suggests an OLAP/GIS-Fuzzy AHP-TOPSIS based methodology for evaluation and selection of best sites for LIWs. In this respect, the candidate locations are specified based on the combination of On-Line Analytical Processing and Geographic Information System (OLAP/GIS). The Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (Fuzzy-AHP), a multi-criteria decision-making method is applied to analyze the structure of the problem and obtain the weights of the qualitative and quantitative criteria, by incorporating the uncertainty values in decision-making. Then, the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) is taken into account to assess and rank the alternative locations. Finally, a hypothetical application of the proposed approach is illustrated by a case study of location selection for LIWs in Morocco. The results show that the proposed methodology can successfully achieve the aim of this work.