Abstract
The purpose of this study was to develop a group fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making method to be applied in rating problems associated with water resources management. Thus, here Chen’s group fuzzy TOPSIS method extended by a difference technique to handle uncertainties of applying a group decision making. Then, the extended group fuzzy TOPSIS method combined with a consistency check. In the presented method, initially linguistic judgments are being surveyed via a consistency checking process, and afterward these judgments are being used in the extended Chen’s fuzzy TOPSIS method. Here, each expert’s opinion is turned to accurate mathematical numbers and, then, to apply uncertainties, the opinions of group are turned to fuzzy numbers using three mathematical operators. The proposed method is applied to select the optimal strategy for the rural water supply of Nohoor village in north-eastern Iran, as a case study and illustrated example. Sensitivity analyses test over results and comparing results with project reality showed that proposed method offered good results for water resources projects.
Highlights
The problems related to water resources management consist of managing the water supply and consumption
The method used in this study is a group fuzzy TOPSIS with detailed explications of two proposed improvements, namely, a consistency analysis of experts’ opinions and using a difference technique regarding to handle uncertainties of applying a group decision making to substantiate the advantages and differences over the Chen’s group fuzzy TOPSIS method
It is necessary to control and analyze opinions to make the best decision, as the result a technique called compatibility study is added to Chen’s method, which results in priority of proposed method in comparison with Chen’s method
Summary
The problems related to water resources management consist of managing the water supply and consumption. Since these problems depend on different qualitative and quantitative criteria, an integrated decision is required, which is difficult. One of the approaches applicable for solving these problems is using multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods. Different MCDM methods have been presented, consisting: Compromise Programming (CP) (Charnes and Cooper 1961); Elimination Et Choice Translating Reality I (ELECTRE I) (Benayoun et al 1966; Roy 1968); ELECTRE II (Roy and Bertier 1973) and ELECTRE III (Roy 1978); Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) (Saaty 1980); Simple Additive Weighting (Hwang and Yoon 1981); Technique for Order Preference by Simulation of Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) (Hwang and Yoon 1981); Analytic Network Process (ANP) (Saaty 1996); preference ranking organization method for enrichment evaluations (PROMETHEE) (Brans et al 1986); Gray Relational Analysis (Deng 1989); Weighted Sum Method (Janssen 1996); Vise Kriterijumska optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) (Opricovic 1998; Opricovic and Tzeng 2002) and Data Development Analysis (Cooper et al 2000).
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