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Decision making under uncertainty using a qualitative TOPSIS method for selecting sustainable energy alternatives

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Abstract

Multi-criteria decision-making methods support decision makers in all stages of the decision-making process by providing useful data. However, criteria are not always certain as uncertainty is a feature of the real world. MCDM methods under uncertainty and fuzzy systems are accepted as suitable techniques in conflicting problems that cannot be represented by numerical values, in particular in energy analysis and planning. In this paper, a modified TOPSIS method for multi-criteria group decision-making with qualitative linguistic labels is proposed. This method addresses uncertainty considering different levels of precision. Each decision maker’s judgment on the performance of alternatives with respect to each criterion is expressed by qualitative linguistic labels. The new method takes into account linguistic data provided by the decision makers without any previous aggregation. Decision maker judgments are incorporated into the proposed method to generate a complete ranking of alternatives. An application in energy planning is presented as an illustrative case example in which energy policy alternatives are ranked. Seven energy alternatives under nine criteria were evaluated according to the opinion of three environmental and energy experts. The weights of the criteria are determined by fuzzy AHP, and the alternatives are ranked using qualitative TOPSIS. The proposed approach is compared with a modified fuzzy TOPSIS method, showing the advantages of the proposed approach when dealing with linguistic assessments to model uncertainty and imprecision. Although the new approach requires less cognitive effort to decision makers, it yields similar results.

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Acknowledgments

This research was partially supported by the SENSORIAL research Project (TIN2010-20966-C02-01 and TIN2010-20966-C02-02), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Information Technology. Partial support was also provided by a doctoral fellowship awarded to one of the authors at the ESADE Business School, with additional support from Ramon Llull University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ESADE Business School, Ramon Llull University, Av. Pedralbes, 60, 08034, Barcelona, Spain

    A. Afsordegan & N. Agell

  2. Department of Mathematics, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, UPC-BarcelonaTech, Edifici Omega, C/Jordi Girona Salgado,1-3, 08034, Barcelona, Spain

    M. Sánchez

  3. Department of Business Administration, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, UPC-BarcelonaTech, Av. Diagonal, 647, 08028, Barcelona, Spain

    S. Zahedi

  4. Department of Engineering Projects, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, UPC-BarcelonaTech, Av. Diagonal, 647, 08028, Barcelona, Spain

    L. V. Cremades

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  1. A. Afsordegan
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Correspondence to N. Agell.

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Afsordegan, A., Sánchez, M., Agell, N. et al. Decision making under uncertainty using a qualitative TOPSIS method for selecting sustainable energy alternatives. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 13, 1419–1432 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-016-0982-7

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