Analysis of Sustainability Decision Trees Generated by Qualitative Models Based on Equationless Heuristics

Karel Doubravský, Alena Kocmanová and Mirko Dohnal
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Karel Doubravský: Department of Informatics, Faculty of Business and Management, Brno University of Technology, Kolejní 4, 612 00 Brno, Czech Republic
Alena Kocmanová: Department of Economics, Faculty of Business and Management, Brno University of Technology, Kolejní 4, 612 00 Brno, Czech Republic
Mirko Dohnal: Department of Economics, Faculty of Business and Management, Brno University of Technology, Kolejní 4, 612 00 Brno, Czech Republic

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 7, 1-18

Abstract: Sustainability processes are complex and therefore ill-known, inconsistent, and subjective, and must be studied despite a shortage of information. It is prohibitively difficult to study them on quantitative levels using quantitative methods. The presented qualitative approach enables us to solve these issues. There are just three values used to describe the qualitative variables and their derivatives, plus/increasing, zero/constant, and negative/decreasing. An n -dimensional equation-less qualitative model is a set of pairwise relations. Such relations represent a shallow knowledge of the sustainability systems being studied. The solution of the qualitative model is a set of scenarios. The behaviour of this model is described by all of the possible transitions among these scenarios. A decision maker can easily compile a decision tree if he/she knows all of the possible transitions. The generated tree can be evaluated using traditional methods if all of the relevant probabilities are known. Otherwise, some heuristics are used to evaluate the best decision.

Keywords: sustainability; equation-less qualitative model; decision tree; information shortage; heuristics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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