International Journal of Multicriteria Decision Making (4 papers in press)

Regular Issues

• A Multi-criteria Decision Making Model for the Optimal Planning of Municipal Solid Waste under Uncertainty  
  by Syed Muneeb, Ahmad Yusuf Adhami, Zainab Asim 
  Abstract: This paper presents a decision making model to effectively allocate the flow of waste under the restrictions of transportation, inventory holdings, waste treatment and disposal operations. The model considers the objectives of minimizing total cost and delivery time as well as maximizing the revenue generated from the waste treatment. To handle the uncertainties waste generation rates are considered as normal random variables. Weighted fuzzy programming is used to generate the compromise solutions. To illustrate and justify the applicability and efficiency of proposed model, a numerical illustration is also provided. Finally, different set of solutions are also obtained based on varying weights or preferences assigned to different objective functions. The proposed network involves all of the links included in a waste management system from the waste generators to the disposals and therefore is highly useful for decision makers to increase the efficiency of the existing waste management systems. On the practical concern, the proposed model also provides an avenue to explore the decision making when different priorities are taken into consideration for different objectives. The study did not consider different types of waste and their associated waste treating facilities which make the system more complex. The model could be advanced further by considering stochastic or fuzzy uncertainties in different parameters of the problem. Moreover incorporation of multi-level, multi-waste concepts into the proposed model could also be considered as the future perspectives of the present study.
  Keywords: Solid waste management; revenue; multi-objective programming; stochastic programming.
  
  
• An extension of PROMETHEE to hierarchical multicriteria clustering  
  by Jean Rosenfeld, Yves De Smet 
  Abstract: Multicriteria clustering can be seen as a hybridization between ranking and sorting problematic. These methods are used to build totally or partially ordered groups of alternatives based on preference relations.rnIn the context of totally ordered clustering, two hierarchical approaches (top-down and bottom-up) based on PROMETHEE II have been developed in this paper. These methods rely on the optimization of the structure of the clustering (by maximizing the intra-cluster homogeneity and the inter-clusters heterogeneity). A third approach is developed as a hybrid model that merges the information obtained by both previous models. rnA specific quality index has been introduced to be able to evaluate the method's outputs and to choose appropriately the desired number of clusters.rnThe three procedures have been tested on several dataset (Shanghai Ranking of World Universities, Environmental Performance Index and CPU evaluations) and the results have been compared with P2Clust.
  Keywords: Multiple Criteria Analysis; PROMETHEE; Hierarchical Clustering; Multicriteria Clustering; Quality Index.
  
  
• GIS-based Multi-Criteria Analysis for Optimal Weather Radar Site Selection  
  by Redouane Boudjemaa, Nicolas R. Dalezios, Ioannis N. Faraslis 
  Abstract: The development of a reliable methodology for the selection of optimal sites for weather radar installation is presented in this paper. The proposed methodology is based on the combination of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods. The case study of the Algerian central north region is selected as a methodology application. A total of six constraints and eight evaluation criteria divided into radar coverage, infrastructures and environmental and social clusters are considered in the decision model. The weights coefficients of the adopted evaluation criteria are generated using an Analytical Network Process combined with Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL-ANP) techniques. The produced site locations are then ranked and selected by Multi-Attribute Border Approximation Area Comparison (MABAC) and the results are compared to those obtained using VIKOR, TOPSIS and COPRAS. The four different methods indicate that the location (A3) near the town of Thenia with an area of nearly 68 hectares is ideal for the installation of a weather radar. The proposed methodology can be used as a tool by decision makers involved in the selection of future weather radar sites or in the evaluation of existing ones. The tool could be easily adapted to different geographical regions and modified to adopt new criteria or constraints.
  Keywords: Weather Radar; Site selection; MCDM; GIS; DEMATEL-ANP; MABAC.
  
  
• A real options approach to decision making in broadband technology selection  
  by Marco Araujo, Love Ekenberg, João Confraria, Mats Danielson 
  Abstract: The European Union has recently launched an ambitious plan to mitigate drastically, by 2025, the number of households lacking access to a 100 Mbps broadband connection through the subsidization of the deployment of network infrastructure in rural areas. Decision makers such as governments and regulatory authorities therefore have to choose, among a pool of alternatives, a technology capable of delivering the required throughput on a large scale, based on a trade-off between the infrastructure costs and the subscribers perceived utility for each alternative. Such a trade-off is not simple, since there is no straightforward manner to rank the subscribers perceived utility against the network infrastructure cost. In this article, we propose a methodology based on real options, which outputs the value of each technology using multi-attribute value theory as an input, alongside the projects risk and its costs.
  Keywords: broadband; real options; MAVT; MCDM; risk analysis; convenience yield; 5G; FTTH; FTTC; G.Fast; DSL.