International Journal of Multicriteria Decision Making (6 papers in press)

Regular Issues

• A new threshold for the detection of possible rank reversal occurrences in Promethee II rankings  
  by Gilles Dejaegere, Yves De Smet 
  Abstract: Multicriteria decision aid consists in helping decision makers to compare (rank, choose, sort, etc.) different alternatives which are evaluated on conflicting criteria. A well-known family of decision aid methods is the Promethee family. It has been highlighted that these methods may suffer from rank reversal occurrences. However, Mareschal et al. and later Verly & De Smet have pointed out that rank reversal could only occur between alternatives having similar flow scores. In this work, a stricter threshold on the difference of net flow scores is proposed. It is shown using real datasets that the new threshold significantly reduces the pairs of alternatives subject to rank reversal. A comparison of the different thresholds according to the information on which they are based is also given. These new insights suggest to reconsider carefully the definition of the indifference and the incomparability relation in the context of Promethee methods.
  Keywords: Multicriteria; Decision aid; Promethee; Rank Reversal; Parameters; Threshold; Net flow score; Indifference; Incomparability.
  
  
• Multi-criteria evaluation of power generation alternatives towards lignite phase-out: the case of Ptolemaida V  
  by Georgios P. Trachanas, Nikos Mantzaris, Vangelis Marinakis, Haris Doukas 
  Abstract: Replacing existing lignite power plants with cleaner infrastructure serves as a quite complicated problem in the presence of economic, environmental, and societal crucial factors. In the present paper, we explore replacement options for the case of Ptolemaida V lignite power plant, Greece, which is planned to stop its operation by 2028 at the latest. In this context, we analyze four replacement technology alternatives: CO_2 capture and storage, biomass, combined cycle gas turbine with fossil gas, and thermal energy storage coupled with renewable energy. Evaluation is based on an extended version of the VIKOR method, incorporating simultaneously uncertain data and incomplete criteria weights. Numerical results show a narrow advantage of thermal energy storage in most scenarios, while CO_2 capture and storage, and lignite-biomass cooperation constitute rather inadequate solutions. Finally, we formulate a regret-oriented VIKOR-based decision support framework to cope with similar problems under the presence of scenario uncertainty.
  Keywords: lignite phase-out; power generation planning; multi-criteria decision making; VIKOR; incomplete weights.
  
  
• A MULTICRITERIA DECISION SUPPORT APPROACH FOR EVALUATING HIGHLY COMPLEX ADAPTIVE REUSE PLANS  
  by Francesca Abastante, Salvatore Corrente, Salvatore Greco, Isabella Lami 
  Abstract: How to handle an environmental and urban decision problem with many alternatives and the presence of several interdependent criteria of heterogeneous nature? The paper answers this question by proposing an integrated multicriteria decision aiding approach illustrated by the comparison of 19 alternative projects for the reuse of an abandoned thermoelectric power plant in Bari (Italy). The starting point for this paper was the Futur-e Project, launched by the main Italian distributor of electricity called ENEL, to reconvert 24 former thermoelectric power plants and to create new development opportunities. The problem under consideration was delicate due to its environmental fallout as well as economic and social ambitions. Moreover, the complexity of the decision problem was further enhanced by the large size of the area (80,000 sqm), which required the comparison of numerous diversified alternative feasible plans. We focus on the following salient aspects: 1) the evaluation on a common scale of the feasible plan performances with respect to heterogeneous criteria; 2) the construction of a reliable decision support model requiring the decision maker a parsimonious preference information. We adopted an assessment framework based on the Choquet integral, permitting to represent interaction between criteria, the parsimonious Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), reducing drastically the number of pairwise comparison required by the classical AHP approach, and the Stochastic Multicriteria Acceptability Analysis, permitting to explore the space of different recommendations supplied by the decision model in case of perturbation of its parameters. We report on the evolution of the decision procedure and on the different aspects of the support provided by the adopted approach, with a special attention to the presence of interacting criteria, which is typical of several urban and territorial decision problems.
  Keywords: Adaptive reuse; Analytic Hierarchy Process; Choquet Integral; SMAA; remediation of contaminated sites; Multiple criteria decision aiding; Interacting criteria.
  
  
• AHP based prioritizing of Cost Challenges of Supply chain due to COVID 19  
  by O.M. PRAKASH MISHRA 
  Abstract: Outbreak of COVID has made the world think and act differently in doing business. Extreme preventive steps taken by governments to shut down the road, rail, air and water transportation brought the global business at halt. Supply chains of most of the businesses got disrupted due to the above-mentioned cause and further worsened by sudden lockdown of the customers and shutting down of point of sales. Whereas, in this situation also, Food and Pharmaceutical supply chains kept working even in extremely stressed environment. This paper is highlighting the supply chain issues during the COVID pandemic. The main stakeholders of any supply chain are supplier, manufacturer, distributor, retailer and customer. In such adverse situation, procurement, manufacturing, distribution and retailing tasks were tweaked to protect people from COVID infection. In these circumstances, sanitisation, social distancing, use of personal protective gears and self-hygiene became new norms for every supply chain activity. These new norms increased the lead time which caused cost of supply chain management to escalate significantly. In this paper, AHP has been used to model the cost of supply chain management in such situation. It has been seen that the customer has played a deciding role. The cost of supply chain of Automotive and Apparel industries has been adversely affected as the customers were not allowed to shop at their will. Whereas, Food and Pharmaceutical industries were least affected as these items remained in list of essentials.
  Keywords: Supply Chain; COVID-19; cost; Analytical Hierarchy Process; pandemic.
  
  

Special Issue on: MCDM for Sustainable Development and Economic Growth

• An Integrated CRITIC-VIKOR Model for Overtourism Assessment in Spain: Post-COVID-19 Sustainable Actions  
  by JOSEFA GARCIA MESTANZA, R.I.M. BAKHAT 
  Abstract: The tourism industry has developed rapidly in recent decades. This boom has led to overtourism in some tourist areas of Spain. The COVID-19, on the other hand, has paralyzed the sector and must be reactivated without reproducing past errors. Faced with this period of uncertainty, economic reactivation, and tourism sustainability, overtourism has become one of the most discussed topics in debates and scientific articles. However, overtourism is at a very early stage in its empirical measurement and remains open to subjective interpretations due to the paucity of precise measurements. This emanates from the fact that overtourism lacks a realistic set of indicators to quantitatively measure its negative impact and inherent risk on the host community. In this way, the main objective of this paper is to provide a set of indicators that allow reviewing and redirecting decision-making at the business and political levels. An integrated MCDM approach has been applied, namely the CRITIC method (CRiteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation) for calculating the weights of the indicators and the VIKOR method (VIsekriterijumska optimizacija i KOmpromisno Resenje) for assessing the alternatives. The case study of Spain provides useful insights, and the obtained results demonstrated that the economic indicators hinder sustainable development and contribute to worsening the tourist attitude more than the social factor do. In this regard, a need remains for determining valid public policies to improve territorial planning, manage the carrying capacity, and further implement sustainable actions in the affected communities during this exceptional health crisis as suggested in the discussion section.
  Keywords: Overtourism; Sustainable Indicators; MCDM; CRITIC; VIKOR; COVID-19.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJMCDM.2022.10044292
   
  
• A Metaheuristic for a sustainable distribution process  
  by Dalila Tayachi, Sidonie Ienra Nyako, Moncef Tagina 
  Abstract: This paper deals with a bi-objective green vehicle routing problem, where conventional economic and environmental objectives are both considered. More precisely, our work minimizes distance and fuel consumption in the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (FCVRP). Firstly, we consider fuel consumption minimization and we propose an Iterated Local Search to solve it as it is an NP-complete problem. In the fuel consumption calculation function, distance, load, and speed are considered simultaneously. The proposed metaheuristic is tested on Solomon's instances for each single objective and the experimental results are compared with those in the literature. Secondly, the epsilon-constraint method is applied to solve the bi-objective FCVRP where the total traveled distance and the fuel consumption are both minimized. A real-world case in Cameroon is considered in order to bring help to the decision-maker.
  Keywords: Green VRP; Fuel Consumption; Bi-objective optimization; Meta-heuristic; epsilon-constraint.