A New Approach to the Viable Ranking of Zero-Carbon Construction Materials with Generalized Fuzzy Information

Raghunathan Krishankumar, Arunodaya Raj Mishra, Fausto Cavallaro, Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas, Jurgita Antuchevičienė and Kattur Soundarapandian Ravichandran
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Raghunathan Krishankumar: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Amrita School of Computing Coimbatore, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore 641112, Tamil Nadu, India
Arunodaya Raj Mishra: Department of Mathematics, Government College, Raigaon, Satna 485441, Madhya Pradesh, India
Fausto Cavallaro: Department of Economics, University of Molise, 86100 Campobasso, Italy
Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas: Institute of Sustainable Construction, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Sauletekio al. 11, LT-10223 Vilnius, Lithuania
Jurgita Antuchevičienė: Department of Construction Management and Real Estate, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Sauletekio al. 11, LT-10223 Vilnius, Lithuania
Kattur Soundarapandian Ravichandran: Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development, Sriperumbudur 602105, Tamil Nadu, India

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 13, 1-24

Abstract: This paper aims to put forward an integrated decision approach, with generalized fuzzy information for the viable selection of zero- and low-carbon materials for construction. In countries such as India, the construction sector accounts for high pollution levels and high carbon emissions. To restore sustainability and eco-friendliness, the adoption of low-carbon materials for construction is essential and, owing to the multiple attributes associated with the selection, the problem is viewed as a multi-criteria decision-making problem. Earlier studies on material selection have faced certain issues, such as the following: (i) the modeling of uncertainty is an ordeal task; (ii) the flexibility given to experts during preference elicitation is lacking; (iii) the interactions among the criteria are not well captured; and (iv) a consideration of the criteria type is crucial for ranking. To alleviate these issues, the primary objective of this paper was to develop an integrated framework, with decision approaches for material selection in the construction sector that promote sustainability. To this end, generalized fuzzy information (GFI) was adopted as the preference style as it is both flexible and has the ability to model uncertainty from the following three dimensions: membership, non-membership, and hesitancy grades. Furthermore, the CRITIC approach was extended to the GFI context for calculating criteria weights objectively, by effectively capturing criteria interactions. Furthermore, the COPRAS technique was put forward with the GFI rating for ranking zero- and low-carbon construction materials, based on diverse attributes. The usefulness of the framework was demonstrated via a case example from India and the results showed that the design cost, the financial risk, safety, water pollution, and land contamination were the top five criteria, with blended cement, mud bricks, and bamboo as the top three material alternatives for zero- and low-carbon construction. Finally, a sensitivity analysis and a comparison with other methods revealed the theoretical positives of this framework’s robustness and consistency–but it also revealed some limitations of the proposed framework.

Keywords: complex proportional assessment; generalized fuzzy set; low-carbon materials; sustainable construction; COPRAS; CRITIC (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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