Multi-Criteria Decision Aid (MCDA) or Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods have received much attention from researchers and practitioners in evaluating, assessing and ranking alternatives across diverse industries. Among numerous MCDA/MCDM methods developed to solve real-world decision problems, the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) continues to work satisfactorily across different application areas. In this paper, we conduct a state-of-the-art literature survey to taxonomize the research on TOPSIS applications and methodologies. The classification scheme for this review contains 266 scholarly papers from 103 journals since the year 2000, separated into nine application areas: (1) Supply Chain Management and Logistics, (2) Design, Engineering and Manufacturing Systems, (3) Business and Marketing Management, (4) Health, Safety and Environment Management, (5) Human Resources Management, (6) Energy Management, (7) Chemical Engineering, (8) Water Resources Management and (9) Other topics. Scholarly papers in the TOPSIS discipline are further interpreted based on (1) publication year, (2) publication journal, (3) authors' nationality and (4) other methods combined or compared with TOPSIS. We end our review paper with recommendations for future research in TOPSIS decision-making that is both forward-looking and practically oriented. This paper provides useful insights into the TOPSIS method and suggests a framework for future attempts in this area for academic researchers and practitioners.

Review: A state-of the-art survey of TOPSIS applications

In this Chapter, we imagine a decision maker (or a group of experts) trying to establish or examine fair procedures to combine opinions about alternatives related to different points of view.

Multiple criteria decision making

On behalf of Mr. Koichiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, it is my great pleasure to welcome you all to this international scientific conference. Drylands are often considered fragile ecosystems, yet they have a remarkable resilience to stress. They are home to unique and well-adapted plant and animal species that we need to conserve. Some of the world’s greatest cultures and belief systems have originated in drylands. On the other hand, desertification and land degradation in drylands often result in poverty and cause environmental refugees to abandon their homes. These problems can only be addressed in a holistic manner, based on sound scientific research and findings. Solutions to the problems of dryland degradation need to be communicated as widely as possible through education at all levels. These are many reasons why UNESCO – within its mandate of science, education, culture and communication – took the intiative to organize this conference. And we are glad that so many partners have responded to our call. UNESCO considers this conference as its main contribution to the observance of the International Year of Deserts and Desertification in 2006. We have deliberately chosen the title ‘The Future of Drylands’ as we feel it is time to redefine our priorities for science, education and governance in the drylands based on 50 years of scientific research in arid and semi-arid zones. In fact UNESCO has one of the longest traditions, within the UN system, of addressing dryland problems from an interdisciplinary, scientific point of view. In 1955, the ‘International Arid Land Meetings’ were held in Socorro, New Mexico (USA). They were organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), sponsored by UNESCO and supported by the Rockefeller Foundation. One important output of the International Arid Land Meetings was a book entitled The Future of Drylands, edited by Gilbert F. White and published in

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

An extension of TOPSIS for group decision making

Multiple criteria analysis (MCA) is a framework for ranking or scoring the overall performance of decision options against multiple objectives. The approach has widespread and growing application in the field of water resource management. This paper reviews 113 published water management MCA studies from 34 countries. It finds that MCA is being heavily used for water policy evaluation, strategic planning and infrastructure selection. A wide range of MCA methods are being used with the fuzzy set analysis, paired comparison and outranking methods being most common. The paper also examines the motivations for adopting MCA in water management problems and considers future research directions.

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A Review of Multiple Criteria Analysis for Water Resource Planning and Management

Advanced computer models are commonly used to simulate reservoir system's performance. If the number of possible management scenarios is large, it can be extremely difficult to follow related system's operation and get a valuable picture on its spatial and temporal behavior. The decision maker or analyst can be overburdened by quantity and complexity of information generated by model, particularly if system operation is repeatedly simulated for multiyear periods. Related problem is how to select the scenario with most desired long-term consequences. Possible approach is to use selected parts of model's output and re-interpret system behavior by means of certain performance indicators, create appropriate decision matrix and perform multi-criteria analysis to rank decision alternatives (scenarios). The paper proposes a methodology that includes: (1) multiyear simulations of system operation; (2) computing spatially and temporally distributed systemperformance indices such as supply reliability, resiliency and vulnerability; (3) unbiased entropy-based weighting the importance ofperformance indices; and (4) final ranking of scenarios by means of multi-criteria analysis. The number of scenarios and number of performance indices is not restricted, and to account for possibly large sets of scenarios, an ideal-point-distance multi-criteria method TOPSIS is suggested. Proposed methodology appeared to be confident and robust in proof-of-concept application in Brazil.

An Objective Multi-Criteria Evaluation of Water Management Scenarios

Combining different prioritization methods in the analytic hierarchy process synthesis

The social choice (SC) theory is in close relation with multicriteria decision-making (MCDM), especially in group decision contexts. SC theory includes various voting systems while MCDM is represented by utility and outranking methods; among utility models, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is probably the most popular in group decision support. In this paper, we investigate two possible contexts in modeling decentralized decision problems in water management. The first is based on AHP only and two group aggregation techniques. The second one assumes the AHP application in subgroups, while at a group level, aggregation is performed by the SC voting procedures. Comparative analyses show good agreement of the results when two methodologies are applied as the decision support to the water committee of the San Francisco river basin in Brazil. The second methodology (called AHP+SC) is considered more promising for implementation in real-decision situations in water management.

Linking analytic hierarchy process and social choice methods to support group decision-making in water management

There are two mainstreams when using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). One is the standard applications of crisp distributive and ideal mode versions. The other is characterised by fuzzification of the AHP methodology and by attempts to better tackle inherently uncertain and imprecise decision processes with quantitative and qualitative data. The latter is characterised by different approaches to fuzzificating the decision problem; the way of conducting judgment and evaluating process; and finally, in synthesising the results and manipulating fuzzy numbers to devise priorities for the decision alternatives. This paper presents a fuzzy methodology for solving fully structured decision problems with criteria, sub-criteria and alternatives. It follows the logic of AHP in a simple and straightforward manner, efficiently aggregates criteria and sub-criteria into unique hierarchical level and applies a total integral method for comparing decision alternatives. The proposed methodology has been used for the assessment of water management plans in part of the Paraguacu River Basin in Brazil.

Fuzzy AHP Assessment of Water Management Plans

This paper proposes an approach for defining the criteria set required for multicriteria decision making. An approach is developed for a specific class of water management problems, and a SWOT/PESTLE analysis is recommended for identifying the internal and external factors that influence a given water system. The factors are grouped into six categories: political, economic/financial, social, technical, legal, and environmental (PESTLE), and separated afterwards according to their positive or negative influence on the system. All factors are filtered by a proposed elimination algorithm to identify the non-inferior factors and declare them as candidates for inclusion into the criteria set. An approach is applied to the real-life problem of how to define the criteria set and enable the selection of the optimal reconstruction solution of a water intake structure within a regional hydro-system in Vojvodina Province, Serbia. To verify the developed approach, an independent expert is invited to asses all factors identified by the SWOT/PESTLE analysis using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and to rank factors by order of preference. The outcome is satisfactory because the seven top-ranked factors from AHP completely matched the list of factors derived from the elimination algorithm.

Bojan Srdjevic

Papers

An Objective Multi-Criteria Evaluation of Water Management Scenarios

Combining different prioritization methods in the analytic hierarchy process synthesis

Linking analytic hierarchy process and social choice methods to support group decision-making in water management

Fuzzy AHP Assessment of Water Management Plans

Identifying the Criteria Set for Multicriteria Decision Making Based on SWOT/PESTLE Analysis: A Case Study of Reconstructing A Water Intake Structure