Evaluation and Selection of HazMat Transportation Alternatives: A PHFLTS- and TOPSIS-Integrated Multi-Perspective Approach

Zhen-Song Chen, Min Li, Wen-Tao Kong and Kwai-Sang Chin
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Zhen-Song Chen: School of Civil Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
Min Li: School of Civil Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
Wen-Tao Kong: School of Civil Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
Kwai-Sang Chin: Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 21, 1-33

Abstract: Outsourcing the hazardous materials (HazMat) transportation is an effective way for manufacturing enterprises to avoid risks and accidents as well as to retain sustainable development in economic growth and social inclusion while not bringing negative impacts on the public and the environment. It is imperative to develop viable and effective approaches to selecting the most appropriate HazMat transportation alternatives. This paper aims at proposing an integrated multi-criteria group decision making approach that combines proportional hesitant fuzzy linguistic term set (PHFLTS) and the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) to address the problem of HazMat transportation alternative evaluation and selection. PHFLTSs are adopted to represent the congregated individual evaluations in a bid to avoid information loss and increase the reliability of results. Two weight assignment models are then proposed to determine the comprehensive weights of experts and criteria. Furthermore, several novel manipulations of PHFLTS are also defined to enrich its applicability. The TOPSIS method is subsequently extended to the context of PHFLTSs to rank alternatives and choose the best one. Eventually, the feasibility and validity of the proposed approach are verified by a practical case study of a HazMat transportation alternative evaluation and selection decision and further comparison analyses.

Keywords: hazardous materials transportation; alternative evaluation; proportional hesitant fuzzy linguistic term set; entropy measure; multi-criteria group decision-making (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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