Multiple Criteria Decision Aid Approach Research Articles

Performance assessment of energy companies employing Hierarchy Stochastic Multi-Attribute Acceptability Analysis

This paper analyses the development of a performance assessment model for the most important listed companies operating in the energy sector, using a dataset obtained merging different sources. The construction of the model is based on a multiple criteria decision aid approach considering various indicators. The multidimensional nature of the topic in this paper requires the definition of a hierarchical structure of criteria, which has been aggregated into a composite index to obtain a final ranking for the energy companies under investigation. To handle with a hierarchical criteria structure and to take into account the space of fluctuations related to the imprecision on criteria weights, we employ the Hierarchy Stochastic Multi-Attribute Analysis. Thus, the proposed model is able to evaluate the performances of energy companies under different uncertainty scenarios. The results indicate that the first and last positions are quite robust in all considered scenarios, while the rankings relative to the intermediate positions vary widely by the chosen set of weights, exemplifying the need to rank companies based on multiple sets of criteria weights.

Selection of optimum fish oil fuel blend to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions in an IC engine—A hybrid multiple criteria decision aid approach

ABSTRACTThe increasing demand on energy due to population growth and rising of living standards has led to considerable use of fossil fuels which has in turn, had an adverse impact on environmental pollution and depletion of fossil fuels in Internal Combustion (IC) engine sector. Alternative fuel blend evaluation in IC engine fuel technologies is a very important strategic decision involving decisions balancing within a number of criteria and opinions from different decision maker of IC engine experts. The selection of appropriate source of biodiesel and proper blending of biodiesel plays a major role in alternate energy production. This paper describes an application of hybrid Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) technique for the selection of optimum biodiesel blend in the IC engine. The proposed model, Analytical Network Process (ANP) is integrated with Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) to evaluate the optimum blend. Here the ANP is used to determine the relative weights of the criteria, whereas TOPSIS is used for obtaining the final ranking of alternative blends. An efficient pair-wise comparison process and ranking of alternatives can be achieved for optimum blend selection through the integration of ANP and TOPSIS. The obtained preference order for the blends are as B20 > B40 > Diesel > B60 > B80 > B100. This paper highlights a new insight into MCDM techniques to evaluate the best fuel blend for the decision makers such as engine manufactures and R&D engineers to meet the fuel economy and emission norms to empower the green revolution.

Robustness-oriented Group Decision Support. A Case from Ecology Economics

Problems of the field of Ecological Economics are inherently complex and by definition involve trade-offs among multiple criteria. Moreover, the decisions made involve multiple parties, often with conflicting interests. For these reasons, the multiple criteria decision aid (MCDA) paradigm appears as a valuable tool for the field of Ecological Economics and indeed as an indispensable tool in the cases where participatory decisions must be made. In this work we apply a robustness-oriented MCDA approach to reach a solution for a land use problem in Northern Greece. The mathematical modeling as well as the case study results are presented.

Towards a New Approach for Disambiguation in NLP by Multiple Criterian Decision-Aid

Towards a New Approach for Disambiguation in NLP by Multiple Criterian Decision-Aid The aim of this paper is to present a combination of NLP and Multiple Criteria Decision-Aid (MCDA) in order to reach an effective analysis when dealing with linguistic data from various sources. The coexistence of these two concepts has allowed us, based on a set of actions and criteria, to develop a coherent system that integrates the entire process of textual data analysis (no-voweled Arabic texts) into decision making in case of ambiguity. Our solution is based on decision theory and an MCDA approach with a TOPSIS technique. This method allows the multi-scenario classification of morphosyntactical ambiguity cases in order to come out with the best performance and reduce the number of candidate scenarios.

A multiple criteria decision-aid approach in defining national priorities for greenhouse gases emissions reduction in the energy sector

The introduction of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 represents a very important step in the effort for the limitation of the emissions of greenhouse gases. The energy sector, being responsible for the large majority of emissions, represents the most crucial field for undertaking mitigation actions. A large number of potential emission reduction measures exist in this sector, characterised by different cost, applicability difficulties, environmental and social impacts. These criteria define the degree of acceptance of the various actors involved in the decision-making process. In this paper, the possibilities offered by a multicriteria method – namely ELECTRE Tri – are investigated through its application in the case study of Greece, in order to define national priorities for a National Action Plan for GHG mitigation in the energy sector and to formulate a relevant time-schedule for actions’ implementation.

Multiple criteria decision aid for selecting the best product end of life scenario

There exist several scenarios for treating an end of life (EOL) product and each scenario has different environmental, social and economic consequences. An EOL scenario can be better than another with respect to one criterion but worse with respect to another criterion. To compare EOL scenarios with respect to conflicting criteria, a multiple criteria decision aid (MCDA) method should be used. In this paper, we present the MCDA approach developed in the project AEOLOS (An End-of-Life of Product Systems) for supporting users in the selection of the best scenario for treating an EOL product on the basis of their preferences and the performances of the EOL scenarios with respect to relevant criteria.