Extension of the ELECTRE III Method to the Case of Uncertain Preferences: Application to an Example of the Environmental Management Problem
Abstract
Almost all the decision problems are by nature multi-criteria, where multiple and conflflicting criteria must be considered in the decision-making process. For some cases of these decision problems, they are further marked by a lack of certainty and precision in the decision-maker’s judgments and preferences. This study aims to propose an extension of the ELECTRE III method, widely used in the multi-criteria decision aid fifield, to the case of a decision problem where the decision-maker preferences are imprecise and uncertain. In this proposed adaptation, the inaccuracies and uncertainties will be expressed by an uncertainty interval. The proposed extension will be tested with an example problem to demonstrate its feasibility and relevance. In this example of environmental management, we propose to rank three oil refifinery installation projects from the best project to the worst project. The experiment results show that the ELECTRE III method extension can be used easily and rigorously when the uncertainty intervals express the decision-maker’s preferences. Finally, the results obtained in this work can be extended to other multi-criteria analysis methods.References
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