Title: Fuzzy multi-criteria lead and zinc plant site location considering environmental criteria (a case study in Iran)

Authors: Hassan Bagheri; Javad Behnamian; Samaneh Babaei Morad

Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering, Malek Ashtar University of Technology, Tehran, Iran ' Department of Industrial Engineering, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran ' Department of Industrial Engineering, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract: The aim of this study is to determine the location of the lead and zinc site considering environmental criteria. Within a radius of 5 km-10 km of the province under study, there are about 150 lead and zinc plants, which increase the pollution of the city and various diseases. If the plants are closed, about 3,500 people will be unemployed, with the industry mines, and national capital severely affected. Another option is to move these plants to a radius of 100 km in the province, which will cost a lot. Since the fuzzy sets theory method has been widely applied to uncertain decision-making problems in the real-world, in this study and for the first time, to select the appropriate option according to the criteria affecting environmental pollution, disease prevalence, income, unemployment rate, corruption, and cost, a multi-criteria decision-making technique with a hybrid fuzzy approach has been used. The proposed method is a hybrid of the TOPSIS fuzzy technique and a fuzzy hierarchical process that takes advantage of both of them. The results obtained in the case study show that using the proposed method, the best option is moving plants within a radius of 100 km from the city.

Keywords: location problem; fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making; lead; zinc; hybrid approach; Iran.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMOR.2022.122803

International Journal of Mathematics in Operational Research, 2022 Vol.21 No.4, pp.480 - 496

Received: 08 Nov 2020
Accepted: 14 Feb 2021
Published online: 12 May 2022 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article