Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Research Articles

Evaluating the factors influencing the sustainable refrigerant selection by fuzzy decision making approach

Considering that cooling in cooling systems is more costly than heating, the importance of refrigerant selection in cooling systems is even more obvious. Due to the complexity of the refrigerant selection problem, a multi-criteria decision approach must be used to implement a thorough and organized evaluation of the factors. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the criteria to be considered when choosing refrigerants using the interval type-2 trapezoidal fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). As a result, the most important and least crucial refrigerant selection criteria are determined by calculating the weights and obtaining the ranking of the requirements. In this way, the refrigerant selection criteria are prioritized, and the most crucial factor in refrigerant selection has emerged as energy efficiency. In light of the results, it has become clear that it is now essential for everyone in the world to use environ- mentally friendly, highly effective refrigerants.

Enhancing Safety Training Performance Using Extended Reality: A Hybrid Delphi–AHP Multi-Attribute Analysis in a Type-2 Fuzzy Environment

Safety training effectively addresses the inexperience of and lack of knowledge among construction workers, which are some of the most significant contributors to workplace accidents on construction sites. This paper aims to understand the effectiveness of different extended reality (XR) technologies in imparting important construction safety training to construction workers in a virtual environment compared to conventional classroom training sessions. A group of experts were engaged to understand the most effective learning criteria and the impact of XR visualizations, and their responses were analysed using the interval type-2 fuzzy Delphi (IT2FD) method. Following this, a cohort of engineering students were subjected to construction safety training in traditional, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) environments. Their feedback was collected using an online questionnaire and the responses were analysed using the interval type-2 fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (IT2F–AHP). The results revealed that addressing the virtual interface design of the training to maintain the attention of trainees and ensuring the virtual environment’s resemblance to the actual site and task were the most important factors in ensuring effective knowledge retention by the trainees. AR visualizations were most effective at imparting knowledge, and their interactive nature allowed trainees to retain the learned knowledge.

Trapezoidal interval type-2 fuzzy analytical hierarchy process technique for biophilic element/design selection in lodging industry

Recently, hoteliers focussed shifts on green practices because of sustainable goals. Also, guests are more health-conscious nowadays. Hence, biophilic elements and designs attract hoteliers and guests, and selecting the best biophilic elements/designs is one of the most important decision-making problems in the lodging industry. This study investigates the various biophilic elements/designs as main criteria and sub-criteria and evaluates them through the trapezoidal interval type-2 fuzzy analytic hierarchy process technique. Once the main biophilic elements and sub-biophilic elements for hotel selection are identified, the hierarchy structure has been designed. Then the weights are calculated using the interval type-2 fuzzy analytic hierarchy process technique. Finally, the biophilic element/design with the highest priority weight is selected as the most preferred by the guests. The robustness of the results is checked by comparing them with the results of the crisp analytic hierarchy process and sensitivity analysis. The findings of the study will help the decision-makers of the lodging industry in making more efficient and effective strategies.

Analysis of Factors Affecting the Sustainable Success of Airlines During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic increased the risk of financial distress, bankruptcy, or both, in the airline industry. Whether airlines can survive or not during and/or after the pandemic is closely related to their decisions and actions which will enable their success by increasing their resilience. In crisis periods such as COVID-19, the decisions taken by airlines are strategically important for achieving sustainable success. Thus, it is critical to understand which factors are more important for airlines to shape their actions and make correct decisions. This paper investigates the sustainable success factors on which airlines should focus to provide resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. It provides a robust model using the interval type-2 fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (IT2FAHP) and interval type-2 fuzzy Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (IT2FDEMATEL) to identify and rank success factors. The findings indicate that financial and operational factors are extremely important to ensure resilience for airlines. In addition, the results of the study reveal that operational factors and information sharing factors have an impact on financial factors and customer satisfaction.

Planning Location of Mobility Hub for Sustainable Urban Mobility

• Location selection problem for the mobility hubs is an essential and strategic task faced by municipalities. • This paper aims to select the best location for a new mobility hub location in the Anatolian side of Istanbul. • An integrated MCDM methodology that consists of interval type-2 fuzzy AHP and interval type-2 fuzzy WASPAS is proposed. • Kadıköy is found as the best location for building a mobility hub to expand shared-use mobility and public transport options. • To validate results of the proposed approach, Sensitivity analysis is conducted at the end of the study. Mobility hubs facilitate access to many transportation modes, such as public transportation, bike sharing, bus rapid transit (BRT), metro or car sharing, to enable travelers become more mobilized by providing advantage of their socio-economic benefits. Mobility hubs also help to lessen greenhouse gas emissions by decreasing private vehicle usage and giving equal priority to all modes of travel, including walking, cycling and other active forms of transport, i.e. public transport, ridesharing, taxis and private motor vehicles. Thus, emerging and inspiring the usage of diverse modes of transportation with less influence on the environment is one of the main policy to decrease people's environmental footprint. Since the locations of mobility hubs play an important role to achieve this goal by attracting travelers and encouraging people to use different modes of mobility options that has less impact on environment, the location selection of such hubs requires a strategic decision for authorities and policy makers. With this motivation, in this study, an integrated fuzzy multi criteria decision-making (MCDM) methodology that consists of interval type-2 fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and interval type-2 fuzzy Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment (WASPAS) is proposed to select the best location for a new mobility hub location in the Anatolian side of Istanbul. Among alternative locations Kadıköy is found as the best location for building a mobility hub to expand shared-use mobility and public transport options at a major transit station for Istanbulers in Anatolian side. At the end of the study, Sensitivity analysis is conducted to validate results of the proposed approach.

Evaluating water-energy-food system of Yellow River basin based on type-2 fuzzy sets and Pressure-State-Response model

Water, energy and food security are the prerequisites for coping with intensified climate change, and also the guarantee for sustaining socio-economic development. This study aims to establish a “Pressure-State-Response” (PSR) model to evaluate the water-energy-food (WEF) system security and clarify the main factors affecting WEF development, system state and social response. In addition, the interval type-2 fuzzy sets and analytic hierarchy process are incorporated to address uncertainty in the importance weights of quantitative indicators. Scenario design, Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and Combinative Distance-based Asssessment (CODAS) methods are also adopted to carry out quantitative calculation and explore the key constraints of WEF system security in the nine provinces of the Yellow River basin from 2006 to 2019. Results show that the WEF system security in each province has been improved in 2006–2019 under different scenarios. In detail, the pressure of WEF system is decreasing in Gansu, Ningxia, and Shanxi province, which is due to the decrease in waste water emissions per person and energy consumption per unit of GDP. The state of WEF system in various provinces has also been improved year by year. The response of WEF system is increasing in all provinces except Shanxi. There is obvious spatial-temporal heterogeneity in different provinces, but the regional gaps are narrowing. These findings cannot only reflect the multi-element relationship from both human activities and environmental changes, but also deal with uncertain in WEF assessment system. The obtained results can provide scientific basis for decision-makers to formulate relevant policies and measures.

Salt Farmer measurement performance system facing Covid-19 pandemic used interval type-2 FAHP Method

Indonesia is an archipelagic country with a coastline of about 81,000 km and has a variety of very large biological and non-biological resources. Position as an archipelagic country with a very wide sea causes each region to have the potential to produce salt. The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in various negative impacts on several fields such as the economy, social, SMEs and community services. Covid-19 has also resulted in a decrease in salt production and farmers also have difficulty marketing it. The research problem is the large number of salt farmers and number of indicators in providing assistance so that a model for measuring performance of salt farmers is needed. This performance measurement model is guided by several indicators, namely land area (K1), production result (K2), business capital (K3), and marketing system (K4). The method used Interval type-2 Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (IVFAHP). IVFAHP is used to determine indicators that most influence measurement of salt farmers. This study aims to build a model for measuring performance of salt farmers to increase economic productivity and ability of human resources to deal with COVID-19 pandemic. The contribution is a group-based decision by developing the fuzzy interval type-2 method with triangular fuzzy number (TFN) one midpoints. The findings from study are that the most influential indicators in dealing with COVID-19 pandemic are business capital and salt marketing. This research also produces recommendations for improvement salt farmers in an effort to increase salt production.

A GIS-Based Risk Assessment Approach for Evaluating Shelters in Crisis Areas: Case of Idleb/Syria

Millions of people escaped the country, and numerous individuals were displaced since the crisis in Syria started on March 15, 2011. Particularly, internally displaced persons confront troubles in the sense of shelter and housing requirements. The aim of this paper is to propose a new approach for risk assessment in selecting shelters at humanitarian context in crisis areas by employing real data from the region. We included conducting risk assessment in crisis areas, identifying the risks/criteria using the Delphi technique, prioritizing risks using Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (IT2F-AHP), and finally selecting the shelters with lower risk values. For this purpose, we created risk maps for each individual risk/criterion by employing the Geographic Information System (GIS) and merged the risks’ maps into a single final risk map by overlaying them utilizing the weights produced from F-AHP to discover the complete risk value for each area in the study region. Lastly, we extracted and ranked the final risk values for the shelters to enable the decision maker to consider the lower-risk value shelters, as it can aid in expediting and facilitating the housing solutions at times of disasters and crisis.

Yeşil tedarikçi seçimi için birleştirilmiş bir DEMATEL-QFD-AT2 BAHP yaklaşımı

Tedarik zinciri sisteminin temel amacı kar etmek ve müşterilerin beklentilerini aynı anda karşılamaktır. Bu nedenle tedarikçi değerlendirme ve seçme işlemi, işletme maliyetlerini azaltmak, iş fırsatlarını geliştirmek ve kurumsal rekabet gücünü artırmak için önemli bir stratejik karardır. Ayrıca, çevrenin korunmasına ve sürdürülebilir kalkınmaya olan ilginin artması ile birlikte, çevre gereksinimlerine daha fazla dikkat etmek ve yeşil faktörleri seçim sürecine dâhil ederek potansiyel tedarikçileri değerlendirmek gittikçe önem kazanmaktadır. Bu nedenle seçilen tedarikçiler, şirketin isteklerini yerine getirerek müşterilerin "sesini" dikkate almalıdırlar. Bu bağlamda, bu çalışmanın amacı, çeşitli çevresel performans gereklilikleri ve kriterlerini dikkate alarak yeşil tedarikçi seçimi için entegre bir yaklaşımı ortaya koymaktır. Önerilen yaklaşım, bir ilişki yapısını oluştururken, müşteri gereksinimleri (MG'ler) arasındaki ilişkileri karar alma denemesi ve değerlendirme laboratuvarı (DEMATEL) yöntemi yardımıyla ele almaktadır. Her bir tedarikçi seçim kriteri çifti ile MG'ler arasındaki ilişki derecesini belirlemek amacıyla merkezi bir ilişki matrisi oluşturmak için kalite fonksiyon yayılımı (QFD) modeli kullanıldı. Daha sonra, alternatif tedarikçileri önceliklendirmek ve sıralamak için aralık tip-2 bulanık analitik hiyerarşi süreci (AT2 BAHP) uygulandı. Son olarak önerilen yaklaşımın potansiyelini ve uygunluğunu ortaya çıkarmak için bir vaka çalışması sunulmuştur.

Sustainability performance assessment of wind power coupling hydrogen storage projects using a hybrid evaluation technique based on interval type-2 fuzzy set

The purpose of this study is to assess the performance of wind power coupling hydrogen storage projects from the perspective of sustainability. Firstly, an evaluation criteria system for sustainability performance assessment is established, which includes economic, environmental and social aspects. Then, the criteria performances of each alternative are determined by expert groups in the fields of energy economy, energy environment and society sciences. Later, considering the uncertainty in the decision-making, the interval type-2 fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process and the interval type-2 fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution technique are employed to weight the criteria and sort the alternatives, respectively. Finally, a case study in Tibet autonomous, China is given to illustrate the effective of the proposed evaluation criteria and technique. The result shows the alternatives A4 gets the highest score. Moreover, the results of sensitivity analysis reveal that the alternative A4 always secures its top ranking when its weight is floating within a certain range. Meanwhile, the weight results show that the criteria of levelized cost of energy and poverty alleviation promotion should gain more attention. This research can offer references for investors to make investment decisions and for the government to make corresponding policies.

Portfolio optimization of renewable energy projects under type-2 fuzzy environment with sustainability perspective

In this study, a fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) framework is established to optimize the renewable energy project (REP) portfolio(s) in an efficient way. Firstly, from the perspective of sustainability, three objectives of economic, social and environmental impacts as well as 16 subordinated criteria are identified for REP performance evaluation via literature review. Secondly, the performance of REPs on these criteria is adopted the form of interval type-2 fuzzy (IT2F) numbers to fully describe the inherent uncertainties in the REP portfolio optimization problem. Thirdly, the fuzzy weights of these criteria are obtained using interval type-2 fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (IT2F-AHP) technique. Fourthly, based on the criteria performances and criteria weights, the interval type-2 fuzzy weighted averaging (IT2FWA) operator is used to aggregate the fuzzy values of REPs in term of the three objectives. Fifthly, a zero-one programming model is formulated and the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II is employed to capture an optimal-Pareto set by considering the trade-off between the three objectives. Finally, to validate the effectiveness of the proposed framework, a case study in Southeast China is conducted. Results show that the criteria greenhouse gas emission reduction owns the highest weight, and three non-dominant solutions with uniform distribution are obtained.

Portfolio selection of distributed energy generation projects considering uncertainty and project interaction under different enterprise strategic scenarios

Selecting a rational distributed energy generation (DEG) project portfolio is the key to achieving the strategic objectives of energy enterprises. The complexity associated with the selection of DEG project portfolio comes from uncertainties in decision-making environment, interactions between projects, and necessary alignment with the strategic objectives of enterprises. However, previous researches did not address the three issues simultaneously. To fill such gap, this study establishes a multi-criteria decision-making framework to select the optimal DEG project portfolio(s) under different strategic scenarios, where uncertainty and project interaction are considered. The framework consists of two stages. In the first phase, the weights of criteria are determined by the interval type-2 fuzzy analytic hierarchy process technique, and the strategic alignment indexes of each candidate distributed energy generation project are obtained using the interval type-2 fuzzy weighted averaging operator. In the second stage, considering the strategic interactions, a nonlinear 0-1 programming is formulated while satisfying the budget constraints, and the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II is utilized to obtain the optimal portfolio of DEG projects under different strategic scenarios. The proposed framework is applied in a case study to illustrate its suitability and effectiveness. The results show that the selected portfolios vary with the strategic objectives of enterprises. This research has practical applied value for project managers in project portfolio management.

A multi-criteria GIS based model for wind farm site selection using interval type-2 fuzzy analytic hierarchy process: The case study of Nigeria

The development of wind farm projects requires proper planning and evaluation. Most often, the suitability of locations for siting wind farms is based on the wind resource (i.e. wind speeds) of a location. However, other criteria such as environmental, economic, and social factors are also important during the planning stage at arriving at a robust wind farm siting decision. In this paper, a geographic information system-based model for wind farm site selection using interval type-2 fuzzy analytic hierarchy process is proposed and implemented to determine the suitable wind farm sites in Nigeria. The model focuses on the use of fuzzy sets to represent expert’s linguistic judgement with the aim of addressing the issues of uncertainty, vagueness and inconsistency in wind farm site selection decision making. The model uses two sets of criteria (weighted and constraint) which are either economic, social, or environmental in evaluating the suitable sites for wind farm development. The results of the study revealed that the best sites for wind farm development are basically located in the Northern part of Nigeria with Bauchi, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Plateau, and Sokoto states being the most suitable locations for wind farm projects. The suitable area for locating wind farm in the country is evaluated to be approximately 125728.6 km2, out of which about 2650.1 km2 are considered to be extremely suitable for siting a wind farm. This paper could serve as a first-hand scientific information for decision makers and planners in selecting the optimal suitable site for wind farm development. Although, Nigeria is considered as the case study, the methodology can be severally applied to any region in the world.

Air quality assessment using weighted interval type-2 fuzzy inference system

This paper presents an integrated model based on interval type-2 fuzzy reasoning approach and interval type-2 fuzzy analytic hierarchy process for assessment of air quality in urban areas. In the proposed model, interval type-2 fuzzy reasoning approach is employed to determine impacts of different air pollutants to describe complex relationship between air pollutants and air quality index by considering individual weights of different air pollutants through the aggregation of toxicological impacts and concentration level of different air pollutants using interval type-2 fuzzy analytic hierarchy process. The proposed approach is advantageous over its counterparts to model the inter-personal and intra-personal uncertainties involved in classification of air quality index. Finally, the developed air quality assessment model is applied on the historical data set collected from ambient air quality monitoring stations operating near by the Victoria memorial, in Kolkata Metropolitan area. The study shows that the air quality index increased significantly during the festive season due to extensive fireworks in those areas.

Solving Critical Path Problem in Project Network by a New Enhanced Multi-objective Optimization of Simple Ratio Analysis Approach with Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Sets

Decision making is an important issue in business and project management that assists finding the optimal alternative from a number of feasible alternatives. Decision making requires adequate consideration of uncertainty in projects. In this paper, in order to address uncertainty of project environments, interval type-2 fuzzy sets (IT2FSs) are used. In other words, the rating of each alternative and weight of each criterion are expressed by IT2FSs. Moreover, for obtaining weights of criteria, interval type-2 fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method is employed. In addition, a new enhanced model of multi-objective optimization on the basis of simple ratio analysis (MOOSRA) method is developed with IT2F-relative preference relation. Finally, to illustrate applicability of the introduced approach, an existing application from literature is adopted and solved.

Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process for Sustainable Energy Sources Selection

Selecting sustainable energy sources is one of the efforts to ensuring optimum energy consumption. However, the selection process is not straight forward as it requires multi-criteria that inherited uncertainty and qualitative evaluation. Multi-criteria evaluation that based on fuzzy set theory is one of the well-known methods to handle uncertainty in decision making and vagueness of information. This paper develops a preference for sustainable energy using the linguistic evaluation of interval type-2 fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (IT2 FAHP). Seven alternatives of sustainable energy sources that closely related to nine criteria were identified as the hierarchical structure of the decision making problem. Two academicians and an engineer attached to government agencies were invited to provide linguistic evaluation. The linguistic evaluations were analyzed using the newly developed IT2 FAHP. The seven-step computational method was implemented and the results suggest that solar energy is the best alternative in selecting the viable sustainable energy.

Emergency department performance evaluation by an integrated simulation and interval type-2 fuzzy MCDM-based scenario analysis

Emergency departments (EDs) have an important position in healthcare system environment because of their serviceability to the patients with several illnesses and injuries at all hours of the day and night. Therefore, efficient management of these departments by executives and service providers is only possible with effective tools such as simulation. The concept of multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) is applicable by computer simulation for decision analysis and performance evaluation of an ED. This study proposes an integration of computer simulation, MCDM methods of interval type-2 fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (IT2FAHP), and ELECTRE for an ED system in a university hospital. Due to the high uncertainty in ED operations, interval type-2 fuzzy sets (IT2FSs) are used in MCDM process. Consequently, the integrated method can be used as a useful tool to evaluate the ED performance and select the best scenario considering different numbers of nurses and doctors for three shifts. [Received 30 July 2013; Revised 9 February 2015; Accepted 14 June 2015]

Strategic Decision Selection Using Hesitant fuzzy TOPSIS and Interval Type-2 Fuzzy AHP: A case study

AbstractStrategic decisions such as mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures have a strong effect on firm performance. In order to be successful in highly competitive environments firms have to make right and on time strategic decisions. However, the nature of making the right strategic decision is complex and unstructured since there are many factors affecting such decisions. Moreover these factors are usually hard and vague to evaluate numerically. This study tries to develop a multicriteria decision-making model which considers both the complexity and vagueness of strategic decisions. The weights of the factors are determined by interval type-2 Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and then the best strategy is selected by Hesitant Fuzzy TOPSIS using the determined weights. An application to a multinational consumer electronics company is presented.