Rating and ranking of multiple-aspect alternatives using fuzzy sets

A method is proposed to deal with multiple-alternative decision problems under uncertainty. It is assumed that all the alternatives in the choice set can be characterized by a number of aspects, and that information is available to assign weights to these aspects and to construct a rating scheme for the various aspects of each alternative. The method basically consists of computing weighted final ratings for each alternative and comparing the weighted final ratings. The uncertainty that is assumed to be inherent in the assessments of the ratings and weights is accounted for by considering each of these variables as fuzzy quantities, characterized by appropriate membership functions. Accordingly, the final evaluation of the alternatives consists of a degree of membership in the fuzzy set of alternatives ranking first. A practical method is given to compute membership functions of fuzzy sets induced by mappings, and applied to the problem at hand. A number of examples are worked out. The method is compared to another one proposed by Kahne who approaches the problem probabilistically

A novel evaluation approach for power distribution system planning based on linear programming model and ELECTRE III

© 2014 IEEE. To evaluate solutions of power distribution system planning (PDSP) is an essential task in smart grid and requires multi-criteria decision making (MCDM). However, the vagueness of attribute values and the fuzziness of weights of criteria need integrate fuzzy techniques with MCDM. In order to incorporate the issues with uncertainty in PDSP evaluation, this paper proposes a novel PDSP approach based on linear programming model and ELECTRE IIL The incomplete weight preference information of decision-maker is elicited and expressed by a group of weight constraint functions, combined these functions with the simple multi-attribute rating technique, a linear programming model is set up to obtain the weights for each solution. Then with the weights and a PDSP model based on ELECTRE III model, the outranking score of each solution compared with other solutions can be calculated, and a net present score for each solution will be obtained for ranking these solutions, DM can choose one desired. A case is demonstrated to show the evaluation process using this approach and the results indicate that this approach incorporating the issues with uncertainty is robust for PDSP evaluation. The results are acceptable to DM

Optimization of the indoor environmental quality of buildings

As Men spend about 90% of their time inside enclosed spaces, a healthy and comfortable indoor climate is a basic premise in all buildings. Taking into consideration that in the EU, buildings account for about 40% of the total energy consumption (35% in Portugal), it is mandatory to control the energy consumption in the building sector, while maintaining, or even improving, the indoor environmental quality. As the buildings are complex systems, where all aspects are interconnected and influence each other, it is necessary an integrated and comprehensive approach to the building in order to enhance indoor health and comfort besides only energy savings concerns. An environmentally sustainable approach should then be followed. Heating, cooling, daylight, indoor air quality (IAQ), acoustic behaviour and energy strategies should be meshed at an early stage with the other buildings requirements to ensure their overall comfort conditions. To accomplish this goal, it is necessary to predict the thermal, acoustic, daylight conditions and IAQ behaviour of the buildings, on the design phase, in order to be able to do the right choices, regarding, for instance the geometry, space organization, fenestration strategies, construction solutions and materials, to improve the occupants overall comfort and, at the same time, reducing the energy costs. In this work, it is presented a multi-criteria analysis, suitable for the design phase that balances all these aspects, with the potential of becoming a valuable tool to assist the designer in the most appropriate selection of design alternatives, construction solutions and materials

A Prototype Selection Committee Decision Analysis and Support System, SCDAS: Theoretical Background and Computer Implementation

One of the important problems in decision analysis related to the situation, where the committee (group of decision makers) has to select the best alternative from a given, finite set. In the most cases, the alternatives are evaluated on the basis of several quality factors. In the paper, the authors present the new approach, based on the principle of satisfactory decision making. This approach ensures proper structuralization of the decision process and allows proper balance of opinion of the group member. The experimental decision support system SCDAS was developed to test this approach

Modeling Multi-Objective, Interbasin, Surface Water Development System with Supplementary Use of Reclamation System

This paper centers on the multi-objective, interbasin, surface water development system, whereby, if necessary, the conjunctive use of reclamation system is assumed to be available. The major objectives of the paper include (i) analysis of the quality of industrial waters blended with renovated waters ; (ii) identification of the relation between the blended water demand and its blending ratio and (iii) modeling and analysis of the coordinated attainments of multiple goals involved in the stated system. A case study is conducted at the interbasin system of the southern part of Hyogo Prefecture and some informative results obtained point to the need of this kind of alternative water utilization systems. The major findings of the study include : (1) The reclamation system is required to be implemented on a certain scale to supplement the industrial water supply. (2) In cases where the permitted-levels of the collection goals related to each river basin are set to be relatively higher, the total amounts of water supply that must be covered by the reclamation systems should be allocated to the system of each basin roughly in proportion to the amounts of its industrial water demand. (3) The increased attainments of the amounts of collection, and in consequence, the increased attainments of the improvement in the blended water quality are achievable only at the sacrifice of economic efficiency. (4) The attainments of the goals are seen to be well-balanced and not biased to any of them, chiefly owing to the L-type utility function underlying the model

Analysis of Production and Location Decisions by Means of Multi-Criteria Analysis

During the last few years economists and operations researchers have paid much attention to multi-criteria analysis as a tool in modern decision-making. The basic feature of multi-criteria analysis is the fact that a wide variety of relevant decision aspects can be taken into account without a necessity to translate all these aspects in monetary terms. This article will give a brief survey of these new methods in both a quantitative and in a qualitative sense. After this survey the relevance of multi-criteria analysis for entrepreneurial decisions in the field of production and investments will be exposed. The analysis will be illustrated by means of two examples of entrepreneurial decision-problems, which have been solved by means of multi-criteria analysis

Assessment and relative sustainability of common types of roadside noise barriers

yesThere is increasing legislative and public pressure for the design and build of road infrastructure schemes to achieve better sustainability performance. Roadside noise barriers (RNBs) form a major part of the growing road infrastructure system in mitigating undesirable road noise to impacted communities. However, the relative sustainability of common RNBs is little understood in the research and industry literature. This makes it difficult for stakeholders to make informed decisions with regards to the sustainable design and procurement of RNBs. This paper presents nowel research carried out to assess and rank the relative sustainability of 13 RNB types using three multi criteria analysis (MCA) techniques, i.e. Simple Additive Weighting (SAW), Preference Ranking Organisation MeTHod for Enrichment Evaluations (PROMETHEE), and Elimination et Choice Translating Reality (ELECTRE III). The paper concludes that the presented sustainability rankings of the main RNB types from least sustainable to most sustainable will support the relevant stakeholders, involved in the planning, design, and procurement stages, to evaluate the sustainability of RNB options as either part of a large highways scheme or standalone project. The presented results will save significant analysis time and costs in cases whereby it is unfeasible to conduct MCAs. The presented sustainability asssessment methodology may also provide the basis for an industry sustainability certification sceheme and in turn support advancing the sustainability transport agenda.FP7 Quiesst research grant funded by the EU

Measuring the understandability of WSDL specifications, web service understanding degree approach and system

Web Services (WS) are fundamental software artifacts for building service oriented applications and they are usually reused by others. Therefore they must be analyzed and comprehended for maintenance tasks: identification of critical parts, bug fixing, adaptation and improvement. In this article, WSDLUD a method aimed at measuring a priori the understanding degree (UD) of WSDL (Web Service Description Language) descriptions is presented. In order to compute UD several criteria useful to measure the understanding’s complexity of WSDL descriptions must be defined. These criteria are used by LSP (Logic Scoring of Preference), a multicriteria evaluation method, for producing a Global Preference value that indicates the satisfaction level of the WSDL description regarding the evaluation focus, in this case, the understanding degree. All the criteria information required by LSP is extracted from WSDL descriptions by using static analysis techniques and processed by specific algorithms which allow gathering semantic information. This process allows to obtain a priori information about the comprehension difficulty which proves our research hypotheses that states that it is possible to compute the understanding degree of a WSDL description.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

DISCRET: An Interactive Decision Support System for Discrete Alternatives Multicriteria Problems

This paper is one of the series of 11 Working Papers presenting the software for interactive decision support and software tools for developing decision support systems. These products constitute the outcome of the contracted study agreement between the System and Decision Sciences Program at IIASA and several Polish scientific institutions. The theoretical part of these results is presented in the IIASA Working Paper WP-88-071 entitled "Theory, Software and Testing Examples in Decision Support Systems" which contains the theoretical and methodological backgrounds of the software systems developed within the project. This paper presents the DISCRET system. This system has been designed to solve basic multicriteria choice problems in which a finite set of feasible alternatives is explicitly given and for each alternative the value of all criteria are known. The decision maker is assumed to be rational in the sense that he can accept a Pareto-optimal solution as his final solution of the problem. Such a decision problem is rather simple as long as the number of criteria and alternatives is small. However, if the number of alternatives and/or criteria grows, the human information processing capabilities may reach their limits and therefore decision support facilities need to be utilized to guarantee efficient decision making