Multi-Criteria Decision Making Using TOPSIS Method Under Fuzzy Environment. Application in Spillway Selection

Abstract

The selection of an appropriate spillway has a significant effect to the construction of a dam and several procedures and considerations are needed. In the past, this selection of the type of the spillway was arbitrary and sometimes with bad results. Recently the Multiple Criteria Decision Making theory has given the possibility to make a decision about the optimum form of a spillway under complex circumstances. In this paper, the above method is used and especially the TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) method for the selection of a spillway for a dam in the district of Kilkis in Northern Greece—‘Dam Pigi’. As the criteria were fuzzy and uncertain, the Fuzzy TOPSIS method is introduced together with the AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process), which is used for the evaluation of criteria and weights. Five types of spillways were selected as alternatives and nine criteria. The criteria are expressed as triangular fuzzy numbers in order to formulate the problem. Finally, using the Fuzzy TOPSIS method, the alternatives were ranked and the optimum type of spillway was obtained.