Sustainability Indicator Selection By A Novel Triangular Intuitionistic Fuzzy Decision Making Approach In Highway Construction Projects

The main purpose of this research is to select the most appropriate set of SIs to address all three pillars of highway sustainability by a new group decision-making approach. The proposed approach accounts for risk attitudes of experts and entropy measures under a triangular intuitionistic fuzzy (TIF) environment, to handle the inherent uncertainty and vagueness that is present throughout the evaluation process.

Capturing uncertainty in multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) is not a new theme but a largely developing topic which is in close connection with uncertainty theories such as fuzzy set and grey systems theories. Due to growing complexity of construction processes mainly because of implementation of sustainability aspects it would be necessary to take advantage of a novel MCDA methodology as an efficient tool to handle the uncertainty in sustainable construction decision making. In this study, we utilise a novel neutrosophic modified best-worst method (NM-BWM) to deal with the uncertainty in decision making in the context of sustainable construction. The method is an integration of neutrosophic set theory (NST) and the modified best-worst method (M-BWM). The NST can provide insights on efficient uncertainty handling of decision makers (DMs) subjective judgements. The BWM is a MCDA method which utilises two vectors of pairwise comparisons (the best criterion to others and others to the worst criterion) to obtain the weights of evaluation criteria. Merits of the BWM include its capability in effectively remedying the inconsistency derived from pairwise comparisons as well as simplicity and less pairwise comparisons compared to other similar methods like analytic hierarchy process (AHP). We show the applicability of the method in a case study with focus on the implementation of sustainable construction.

Climate change is one of the most challenging problems for the world, which leads researchers to study on the decrease of its impact to the environment at several disciplines. One of the most adverse effects on environment can be observed in transportation area. Hence, in this paper, the impact of bridge maintenance on the environment is inquired in the bridge maintenance prioritization perspective. The aim of this paper is to rank the bridge maintenance projects using type-2 neutrosophic number (T2NN) based fuzzy WASPAS (Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment) and TOPSIS (Technique For Order Preference By Similarity To An Ideal Solution) to test five alternative bridges, where a critical environmental criterion is introduced in this model, which addresses to additional CO2 emission because of truck detours in the event of a bridge closures. The applicability of the proposed model is demonstrated in a case study in Turkey. The evaluation findings show that the ranking results are robust and the CO2 emission criterion is found to be the dominant criterion in the multicriteria decision-making model proposed in this paper.

The success of any activity and process depends fundamentally on the possibility of balancing (symmetry) needs and their satisfaction. That is, the ability to properly define a set of success indicators. The application of the developed new multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods can be eliminated or decreased by decision-makers’ subjectivity, which leads to consistency or symmetry in the weight values of the criteria. In this Special Issue, 40 research papers and one review study co-authored by 137 researchers from 23 different countries explore aspects of multi-criteria modeling and optimization in crisp or uncertain environments. The papers propose new approaches and elaborate case studies in the following areas of application: MCDM optimization in sustainable engineering, environmental sustainability in engineering processes, sustainable multi-criteria production and logistics processes planning, integrated approaches for modeling processes in engineering, new trends in the multi-criteria evaluation of sustainable processes, and multi-criteria decision-making in strategic management based on sustainable criteria.

Given the great impacts associated with the construction and maintenance of infrastructures in both the environmental, the economic and the social dimensions, a sustainable approach to their design appears essential to ease the fulfilment of the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations. Multicriteria decision-making methods are usually applied to address the complex and often conflicting criteria that characterise sustainability. *e present study aims to review the current state of the art regarding the application of such techniques in the sustainability assessment of infrastructures, analysing as well the sustainability impacts and criteria included in the assessments. Analytic Hierarchy Process is the most frequently used weighting technique. Simple Additive Weighting has turned out to be the most applied decision-making method to assess the weighted criteria. Although a life cycle assessment approach is recurrently used to evaluate sustainability, standardised concepts, such as cost discounting, or presentation of the assumed functional unit or system boundaries, as required by ISO 14040, are still only marginally used. Additionally, a need for further research in the inclusion of fuzziness in the handling of linguistic variables is identified.

"This book examines different types of decision-making modeling in addressing complex sustainability issues in the areas of economics, business, manufacturing, management, and mechanical engineering"--

This work examines all the fuzzy multicriteria methods recently developed, such as fuzzy AHP, fuzzy TOPSIS, interactive fuzzy multiobjective stochastic linear programming, fuzzy multiobjective dynamic programming, grey fuzzy multiobjective optimization, fuzzy multiobjective geometric programming, and more. Each of the 22 chapters includes practical applications along with new developments/results. This book may be used as a textbook in graduate operations research, industrial engineering, and economics courses. It will also be an excellent resource, providing new suggestions and directions for further research, for computer programmers, mathematicians, and scientists in a variety of disciplines where multicriteria decision making is needed.

This book highlights various methods for quantifying sustainability indicators using different indices. To date, numerous sustainability indicators encompassing either all three pillars (economic, environmental and social) or individual or joint indicators (e.g. environmental and social) have been developed and quantified. In addition to commonly developed indicators, which can be utilized for any industrial sector, sector-specific sustainability indicators are frequently used. Behind each indicator developed, there is a unique scientific model, method or assessment technique. This book explores and elaborates on such indicators, and on associated details such as the concept, development methodology, assessment technique, and applications of each indicator.

In the recent past, environmental innovations have led to a considerable reduction of many pollutants; however, further innovation is required to tackle remaining pollution sources. This work analyses the significance and the effects of framework conditions on innovation activities that contribute to the realisation of a sustainable development. The book links the experiences of different research projects with the aim to develop a system of indicators to evaluate sustainable effects of (environmental) innovations. A comprehensive framework for an indicator system is established that allows to include different environmental innovation fields such as process innovations in the steel production, substitution of dangerous chemicals, organisational innovations in the field of waste disposal or sustainable water management.