GIS-based suitability analysis using fuzzy PROMETHEE

Abstract

In efficiently supporting planning decisions, decision makers often handle complex and multifaceted decisions. The combined use of geographic information systems (GIS)-based tools and multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) methods has emerged as a sophisticated process that provides significant advantages in overcoming decision-making difficulties. Multicriteria raster-based suitability analyses are dominated by the performance of weighted linear combination approaches. This is principally due to technical limitations that arise since pairwise comparisons among candidate alternatives are needed to perform outranking relations. To overcome these limitations, a combination of GIS and a Fuzzy extension of the PROMETHEE method is proposed to reduce the complexity of the calculations. The efficiency of the proposed decision-making model is discussed through a case study, by comparing the derived alternative location rankings with those obtained by other well-established approaches. The framework provides a flexible way to overcome PROMETHEE computational limitations while the performed results validation analysis reveals that the framework produces coherent results.

Keywords:

• suitability analysis
• GIS
• PROMETHEE
• fuzzy logic

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Part of the current research has been funded by the “IKY FELLOWSHIPS OF EXCELLENCE FOR POSTGRADUATE STUDIES IN GREECE - SIEMENS PROGRAM”.