A fuzzy approach to a multiple criteria and Geographical Information System for decision support on suitable locations for biogas plants

Camilo Franco, Mikkel Bojesen, Jens Hougaard () and Kurt Nielsen

Applied Energy, 2015, vol. 140, issue C, 304-315

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to model the multi-criteria decision problem of identifying the most suitable facility locations for biogas plants under an integrated decision support methodology. Here the Geographical Information System (GIS) is used for measuring the attributes of the alternatives according to a given set of criteria. Measurements are taken in interval form, expressing the natural imprecision of common data, and the Fuzzy Weighted Overlap Dominance (FWOD) procedure is applied for aggregating and exploiting this kind of data, obtaining suitability degrees for every alternative. The estimation of criteria weights, which is necessary for applying the FWOD procedure, is done by means of the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), used jointly with the LLSM-AHP for the estimation of upper and lower bounds for the weights. Then, a combined AHP-FWOD methodology allows identifying the more suitable sites for building biogas plants. We show that the FWOD relevance-ranking procedure can also be successfully applied over the outcomes of different decision makers, in case a unique social solution is required to exist.

Keywords: Decision support; Multiple criteria; Geographical information; Interval data; Facility location; Biogas plants (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (27)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030626191401229X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: A Fuzzy Approach to a Multiple Criteria and Geographical Information System for Decision Support on Suitable Locations for Biogas Plants (2013)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:140:y:2015:i:c:p:304-315

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2014.11.060

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().