Analytic Hierarchy Approach Research Articles

Study on Analogy Calculation Method for Seismic Vulnerability of Earth-Wood Structure Houses

Earth-wood structure houses often cause large casualties and economic losses in historical earthquakes. Therefore, it is estimated that the seismic vulnerability of civil structures in areas that have not experienced earthquakes is of great significance for earthquake prevention and disaster reduction. In this paper, an analogy calculation method was proposed for calculating the seismic vulnerability of earth-wood structure houses in unknown regions from the seismic vulnerability of earth-wood structure houses in known regions. Firstly, the main factors affecting the seismic capacity of earth-wood structure houses were determined, and the weights of influence of influencing factors on the overall seismic capacities of buildings under different seismic intensities were determined by using the fuzzy analytical hierarchy approach; secondly, the relative seismic capacities of the main influencing factors are analogically scored by considering the differences in influencing factors in different regions. Finally, based on the vulnerability matrix of earth-wood structure houses in existing regions and comprehensive evaluation of relative seismic capacities of earth-wood structures, the vulnerability matrix of unknown earth-wood structures was calculated by analogy. The results of trial calculation showed that this method has higher reliability and effectiveness. At the end of the article, the vulnerability analysis of earth-wood structure houses in Shigatse, Tibet, was carried out using this method, and the vulnerability curve was initially given.

Development of a structure analytic hierarchy approach for the evaluation of the physical protection system effectiveness

A physical protection system (PPS) is used for the protection of critical facilities. This paper proposes a structure analytic hierarchy approach (SAHA) for the hierarchical evaluation of the PPS effectiveness in critical infrastructure. SAHA is based on the traditional analysis methods “estimate of adversary sequence interruption, EASI”. A community algorithm is used in the building of the SAHA model. SAHA is applied to cluster the associated protection elements for the topological design of complicated PPS with graphical vertexes equivalent to protection elements.

Generation of Groundwater Zones for Selection of Prospective Suitable Water Harvesting Structure Sites for Sustainable Water Supply Towards the Agricultural Development

Identification of groundwater potential is important for the preparation of management plan of groundwater resource in watershed scale. Groundwater potential zone in watershed scale is identified using GIS, remote sensing satellite data, and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis technique. Different thematic layers, i.e. geological formation, lineament, soil, etc. were used for the identification of groundwater potential zones, while groundwater quality parameters, i.e. hardness, pH, etc. were used for the preparation of groundwater quality index map. The present study focused on identification of possible groundwater potential zones and groundwater quality index both in terms of quantity and quality. The Analytic Hierarchy Approach is utilized to identify the groundwater potential zones. Conclusively, 27.1% area falls under low–medium groundwater potential zone and 9.3% area falls under above the permissible limit of water quality. In total, 240 suitable water harvesting structures, namely storage tank (120 nos), percolation tank (70 nos), stop dam (34 nos) and check dam (16 nos) with their sites, were identified and suggested for water harvesting to enhance the groundwater conditions to meet the scarcity of water resources in agriculture and domestic use.

An asymmetric flow injection determination of hydroquinone and catechol: An analytic hierarchy and artificial neural network approach

A new reaction rate system was introduced for differential kinetic simultaneous determination of hydroquinone (HQ) and Catechol (CC). The method is based on the different kinetic behavior of HQ and CC in their reaction with iron (III) in the presence of 1, 10-phenanthroline (Phen) as a chromogenic reagent. An asymmetric double line flow injection manifold coupled with a spectrophotometric detector was designed and optimized using TOPSIS (Technique of ranking Preferences by Similarity to the Ideal Solution) methods based upon AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process). Under optimal conditions, Bayesian Regularized Artificial Neural Network (BR-ANN) trained by back-propagation of errors was utilized as a non-linear model calibration of flow injection manifold. Detection limits of 0.05 and 0.07 mg L−1 were obtained for HQ and CC, respectively. The linear dynamic range was 0.5–3.0 mg L−1 for both analytes. The suggested method was applied for simultaneous determination of HQ and CC in real samples.

ALTERNATIVES ANALYSIS IN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT: METHODS OF DECISION MAKING

The paper discusses decision-making methods for the comparative assessment of alternatives in environmental impact assessment. The suggested framework for a systematic approach to the comparative assessment of alternatives in decision-making management involves multi-criteria utility theory; analytical hierarchy approach; multi-criteria alternatives ranking; and choice under uncertainty. The proposed decision-making methods mainly concern comparing alternatives and selecting the best one. Considerably often, criteria for evaluating alternatives are contradictory or use different methods and rating scales, which is the main problem for solving multi-criteria problems. The article also considers the steps for generation and analysis of alternatives and suggests the alternatives analysis procedure. The author’s experience proves that experts sometimes fail to provide a preferred alternative that would meet all conditions of multi-criteria analysis; therefore, it is necessary to return to the previous stage of the environmental impact assessment process, i.e. reducing negative impacts. All this brings out the need to develop a new scientific basis, to generate a new set of alternative environmental protection proposals, and to carry out the procedure for selecting the preferred alternative from the outset. After the preferred alternative, in compliance with all environmental protection needs, is selected, and the agreement on the best alternative is reached, experts can undertake a comprehensive environmental impact assessing. The author suggests methods for the comparative assessment of the preferred alternative in environmental impact assessment, each having its merits and demerits and critically examines them in the article. The suggested procedure provides experts’ with decision-making methods of the comparative assessing alternatives in environmental impact assessment.

Construction of avulsion potential zone model for Kulik River of Barind Tract, India and Bangladesh.

Avulsion is a natural fluvial process but considered it as a hazard in the populated region due to the chance of immense failure of lives and properties. So, early warning indicates that the zone of avulsion can facilitate the people living there. About 317 numbers of local and regional historical imprints of channel cutoff along river Kulik claim the need of this work. The present study tried to identify avulsion potential zone (APZ) of Kulik river of Indo-Bangladesh using multi-parametric weighted combination approach. Analytic hierarchy approach (AHP) is applied for weighting the used parameters. Avulsion potential model clearly exhibits that 9.51-km stream segment of middle and lower catchment is highly susceptible for avulsion especially during sudden high discharge and earthquake incidents. There is also high chance of channel avulsion following the existing Paleo-avulsion courses and left channels. Hard points can also be erected alongside the main channel for resisting channel avulsion propensity.

A comparison of high-speed internet service in Ghana: an analytical hierarchy approach

PurposeThe rising proportion of internet users in Sub-Saharan Africa and the lack of analytical techniques, as decision support systems, in choosing among alternative internet service providers (ISPs) by consumers underpin this study. The purpose of this paper is to propose an approach for evaluating high-speed internet service offered by ISPs in a sub-Saharan African country.Design/methodology/approachUsing a sample size of 150, pairwise comparisons of two ISPs along five criteria of cost, usability, support, reliability and speed were performed by ten person groups of university students working in various organizations in Ghana and undertaking an online Six Sigma Course. Geometric means were employed to aggregate the scores in 15 groups, and these scores were then normalized and used as input into an analytical hierarchy process grid.FindingsThe results show that consumers of internet services highly emphasize the cost attribute of internet provision in their decision making. On the other hand, it was realized that consumers least emphasize the support provided by ISPs in their decision making among alternative ISPs.Originality/valueThis study has sought to provide an analytical framework for assessing the quality of service provided by alternative ISPs in a developing economy’s context. The evaluating criteria in this framework also reveal the key consumer requirements in internet service provision in a developing economy’s environment. This, to a large extent, will inform the marketing strategies of existing ISPs in Ghana as well as prospective ones intending to enter the Ghanaian market. Besides, the National Communication Authority, a regulator of communication services provision in Ghana, will be informed about the performances of the ISPs along five performance criteria. This is expected to aid in their regulatory functions.

Design of a multi criteria decision model-fuzzy analytical hierarchy approach

In Supply Chain Management(SCM),vendor selection has become a very important activity. By selecting the appropriate vendor, companies can avoid barriers and do for efficient production. The aim of this paper is to identify the important criteria that may develop strategies of the organizations. It deals with the analysis of vendor selection problem using Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP).The comparison has made between the parameters criteria and alternatives by designing a model of uncertainty. The proposed method has applied in an automobile industry to choose their vendors in a best way.

Risk assessment of toxic metals in marine sediments from the Arctic Ocean using a modified BCR sequential extraction procedure

ABSTRACTSurface sediment samples were collected from the Pacific sector of the Arctic Ocean during the 6th Chinese National Arctic Research Expedition (CHINARE), 2014. Concentrations and extractabilities of six toxic metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn) were determined using a modified sequential extraction procedure as described by the European Community Bureau of Reference (BCR). A new analytical hierarchy approach to risk assessment, involving sediment quality guidelines and risk-assessment codes, is described for metals in marine sediments from the Arctic Ocean. Results indicate a mobility order of Pb > Cd > Cu > Zn > Ni > Cr with mean liable fraction (F1+F2+F3) being 83.0%, 81.6%, 62.0%, 47.1%, 42.1%, and 15.6%, respectively. Ni presents the most serious ecological risk in the study area, with most samples (93.9%) indicating medium risk, followed by Cu (54.5%) and Zn (27.3%). For Ni and Zn, there are also samples showing high ecological risk (Ni at site NB02, northern Bering Sea; Zn at R07, northern Chukchi Sea). The ecological risk for Cr indicates low ecological risk (93.9%) and some medium risk (6.1%). All Cd assessments indicate low ecological risk, while most Pb assessments indicate zero (33.3%) to low risk. The new ecological risk assessment method improves on assessments based on metal mobility or concentration alone.

Calcic iron skarn prospectivity mapping based on fuzzy AHP method, a case Study in Varan area, Markazi province, Iran

Fuzzy analytical hierarchy (AHP) approach is a method for mineral prospectivity mapping (MPM) that is generally used for mineral exploration. This method is feasible for multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) issues. Geographical information system (GIS) and fuzzy AHP have been applied in this paper to obtain prospectivity model for Calcic Iron Skarn (CIS) mineralization. Several thematic (such as geological, geophysical, and geochemical) geo-datasets have been collected, analysed and integrated based on fuzzy AHP method, in Varan area, central of Iran. Three professional economic geologists with the experience on exploration of CIS mineralization have been used to allocate appropriate weights to layers. Then fuzzy operator was used to integrate weighted evidence layers and mineral prospectivity map of CIS mineralization in Varan area was generated. Eventually for confirming the accuracy of the applied manner, locations of recognized mineral deposits in the Varan area were compared with the generated mineral prospectivity map. The results presented acceptable responses. For detailed assessment of the CIS mineralization model and due to the fact that geological features have fractal dimensions, we used C-A model for classification of prospectivity model to determine thresholds for the final prospectivity map. C-A fractal model, determine thresholds for classifying values in evidential maps. The final prospectivity map was confirmed by checking field of three target areas.

Application of the analytic hierarchy approach to the risk assessment of Zika virus disease transmission in Guangdong Province, China

BackgroundAn international spread of Zika virus (ZIKV) infection has attracted global attention in 2015. The infection also affected Guangdong province, which is located in southern China. Multiple factors, including frequent communication with South America and Southeast Asia, suitable climate (sub-tropical) for the habitat of Aedes species, may increase the risk of ZIKV disease transmission in this region.MethodsAn analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method was used to develop a semi-quantitative ZIKV risk assessment model. After selecting indicators, we invited experts in related professions to identify the index weight and based on that a hierarchical structure was generated. Then a series of pairwise comparisons were used to determine the relative importance of the criteria. Finally, the optimal model was established to estimate the spatial and seasonal transmission risk of ZIKV.ResultsA total of 15 factors that potentially influenced the risk of ZIKV transmission were identified. The factor that received the largest weight was epidemic of ZIKV in Guangdong province (combined weight [CW] =0.37), followed by the mosquito density (CW = 0.18) and the epidemic of DENV in Guangdong province (CW = 0.14). The distribution of 123 districts/counties’ RIs of ZIKV in Guangdong through different seasons were presented, respectively.ConclusionsHigher risk was observed within Pearl River Delta including Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Jiangmen, and the risk is greater in summer and autumn compared to spring and winter.

Assessment of Groundwater Potential Zone Using Remote Sensing, GIS and Multi Criteria Decision Analysis Techniques

Abstract: The sustainable development and management of groundwater resource needs quantitative assessment, based on scientific principle and recent techniques. In the present study, groundwater potential zone is being determined using remote sensing, Geographical Information System (GIS) and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) techniques using various thematic layers viz. geomorphology, geology, drainage density, slope, rainfall, soil texture, groundwater depth, soil depth, lineament and land use/land cover. The Analytic Hierarchy Approach (AHP) is used to determine the weights of various themes for identifying the groundwater potential zone based on weights assignment and normalization with respect to the relative contribution of the different themes to groundwater occurrence. Finally, obtained groundwater potential zones were classified into five categories, viz. low, medium, medium-high, high and very high potential zone. The result depicts the groundwater potential zone in the study area and found to be helpful in better development and management planning of groundwater resource.

Evaluating Service Quality of Korean Restaurants: A Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Approach

Every service firm must find ways to attract new customers, retain existing customers, and remain competitive and profitable. As competition increases, delivering better service becomes more important. Service quality is considered as a vital aspect for the success of the firms. Restaurant cannot be separated from the service quality they have to deliver. The development of restaurant is supported with the reputation of the country where the food comes from. Recently, one of the most trending topic is Korean wave which affects the Korean cuisine. A fuzzy AHP was employed to evaluate the service quality. It is more preferable than traditional AHP which is criticized for its inability to handle the uncertainty of the decision maker's perception. Six attributes are used to evaluate five Korean restaurants in Semarang, Indonesia. The result shows that innovation is the most important attribute. It seems that decision makers viewed the food variation and new method service as main factors that the restaurants have to manage. This finding can provide the managers with valuable insights into the attribute that reflects customers' perceptions; also to position their service based on their competitors. Validating the scale in other culture-based restaurants is an interesting area to be pursued.

Choosing Suitable Site for Some Forage Legumes Using Multi-Criteria Assessment and Geostatistical Approach

Land suitability analysis is a prerequisite to achieving optimum utilization of the available land resources. Lack of knowledge on best combination of factors that suit production of forage legume has contributed to the low production. The aim of this study were to determine the most suitable areas for some forage legumes (Medicago sativa L., Onobrychis sativa L., Vicia sativa L., Vicia villosa L., Vicia pannonica L., Vicia narbonensis L., Trifolium pratense L., Trifolium repens L.) based on some physic-chemical properties of soils in the Samsun province located in the Central Black Sea Region of Turkey. To overcome the management and analysis of large volumes of spatial data for land suitability in this study, the geographic information system, geostatistic techniques and multi-criteria assessment using analytical hierarchy approach approaches were used to solve complex geographical problems and to reach reliable results for forage legume cultivation. According to results, 83.2% of the study area has highly (S1) and moderately (S2) suitable whereas, 16.8% of the study area has marginally suitable coded as S3 for forage legumes cultivation.

Tool to Assess Regional Public Transport Plans for Integrated Systems

This study developed a tool that can be used by planners to assess the quality of their regional public transport plan and to produce a well-integrated system. The five attributes of integration—network integration, integrated timed transfer, integrated physical connection for transfers, information integration, and fare and ticketing integration—were adopted to develop a framework that illustrated the relationship between them. The tool was composed of the developed framework and a multicriterion decision-making approach; three steps were required to complete the assessment. In Step 1, each integration attribute was scored at an upper level and for each subattribute based on the information provided in the plan. Step 2 involved the analytical hierarchy approach, a multicriterion decision-making tool, to determine the weight of each attribute on the basis of its importance. The final step was to calculate the total weighted score of the plan. The novelty of the approach was the integration of a well-defined and easy-to-use framework with a systematic, hierarchical weighting model. Two case studies were undertaken to demonstrate the use of the tool: the regional plans of New Zealand’s two most metropolitan cities, Auckland and Wellington. The results demonstrate that the tool can be used to assess the quality of public transport plans for integration. The tool’s ability to indicate deficiencies can assist decision makers to improve their planning toward a better public transport system.

Benchmarking supply chains by analyzing technology transfer critical barriers using AHP approach

Purpose – Technology transfer becoming an important area especially in developing and less developed countries. The purpose of this paper is to address issue of supply chains’ benchmarking based upon their capability to mange technology transfer critical barriers mitigation efforts toward making technology transfer process implementation successful. Design/methodology/approach – The present paper is based on two research stages. Initially, extensive literature review has been made to identify critical barriers. In total, 20 technology transfer critical barriers have been identified from literature review and categorized in to six criteria. In second stage, analytics hierarchy process has been utilized to rank the critical barriers of technology transfer in supply chain and provide a benchmarking framework. Findings – Political barriers (PB) have been analyzed most significant criteria of critical barriers to technology transfer followed by socio-cultural barriers (SO) and economic barriers (EB). “Political instability,” “Difficulty in transfer and diffusion,” “Too expensive,” “Inappropriate/incompetent technology and resource wastage in technologies imported,” “Inactive role of SC members and resistance to change” and “Management attitude” have been found most hindering barrier in their respective category/criterion of technology transfer barriers. Research limitations/implications – Scope of the present study has been limited to propose framework to benchmark supply chains by analyzing 20 critical barriers of technology transfer grouped in to six dimensions using analytical hierarchy approach based on “ratings provided by experts,” which may be biased. Practical implications – Benchmarking process has been proposed to calculate value of total of overall weights to a particular supply chain named as “Technology Transfer Barriers Mitigation Index (TTBMI)” useful to present capability of supply chains to manage technology transfer barriers by a single numeric value. From “provider” developed county’s view point, present benchmarking framework may be further applied to compare developing countries’ ability to absorb and diffuse new technology. Originality/value – Benchmarking procedure has been dealt with using well-established methodology- analytical hierarchy process toward providing single numeric value index (TTBMI) indicating ability of supply chains to manage/mitigate technology transfer barriers.

Rank University Websites Using Fuzzy AHP and Fuzzy TOPSIS Approach on Usability

With the advent of dynamic website usually all business processes of a business organization are linked with the website of the organization. This is resulted in designing of a complex and gigantic website which may result in slow download and unfriendly navigation. Satisfying the end user need is one of the key principles of designing an effective website. As there are different users for given website, hence there are different criteria on which user wants to get satisfied, hence evaluating a website is a multi-criteria decision making problem. In order to incorporate uncertainties and vagueness in decision making Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy (FAHP) approach is extended with Fuzzy TOPSIS approach, where different decision makers (DM's) opinion was considered for ranking the website.

Dynamic risk assessment model for flood disaster on a projection pursuit cluster and its application

Aiming at reducing the losses from flood disaster, a dynamic risk assessment model for flood disaster is studied in this article. This model is built upon the projection pursuit cluster principle and risk indexes in the system, proceeding from the whole structure to its component parts. In this study, a fuzzy analytic hierarchy approach is employed to screen out the index system and determine the index weight, while the future value of each index is simulated by an improved back-propagation neural network algorithm. The proposed model adopts a dynamic evaluation method to analyze temporal data and assesses risk development by comprehensive analysis. The projection pursuit theory is used for clustering spatial data. The optimal projection vector is applied to calculate the risk cluster type. Therefore, the flood disaster risk level is confirmed and then the local conditions for presenting the control strategy. This study takes the Tunxi area, Huangshan city, as an example. After dynamic risk assessment model establishment, verification and application for flood disasters between the actual and simulated data from 2001 to 2013, the comprehensive risk assessment results show that the development trend for flood disaster risk is still in a decline on the whole, despite the rise in a few years. This is in accordance with the actual conditions. The proposed model is shown to be feasible for theory and application, providing a new way to assess flood disaster risk.

A Partner Selection Method for Forming Innovation Alliance

Establishing innovation alliance has now become a very important and indispensable way for achieving the mission of research and development (R&D) of national mega projects in China. As an important component for constructing the collaborative partnership system, an appropriate approach of partner selection should be able to evaluate the performance of candidates objectively. Innovation alliance has members with different backgrounds, but the most suitable partner should be involved in the alliance by launcher before establishing alliance. For this reason, the aim of this paper is to take the different characteristics of organization as the influence factors into the account of weight setting, and propose a fuzzy analytic hierarchy approach (fuzzy AHP) to effectively evaluate candidates. According to the extension principle of fuzzy set theory, linguistic variables defined as fuzzy numbers are applied to pair-wise comparisons to avoid the vague situation, and this study proposes an approximate method for calculating the multiplication products of fuzzy number. This method can handle the vagueness and incompletion during the process of evaluation. A case study is also given to demonstrate the potential of the methodology.

Women Social Security Status in Rushing Sidewalks (Case study: Mashhad Metropolis, Iran)

Security is considered as a fundamental right and a critical necessity for social livings. Women are among one of the most vulnerable groups to insecure conditions. Therefore researches about the amount of social damages imposed on this category of the society have found a crucial position. The objective of this study is to assess the amount of women's social security status in rushing sidewalks in Mashhad metropolis as the second city from the view point of importance and area in Iran based on multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) approach. Sample size was selected 172 individuals for each sidewalk. This study was conducted based on a descriptive- analytical approach. First of all, the deterministic criteria of women social security in sidewalks were listed and weighted according to analytical hierarchy approach (AHP). In order to rank the highest secure sidewalks VIKOR and TOPSIS approaches were used.