Assessment of polluted region using an integrated weighting approach and fuzzy VIKOR method

Abstract

Air pollution exerts a profound impact on both public health and the natural environment. In India, festivals like Diwali also contaminate the air by releasing pollutants into the atmosphere. It is essential to identify the most polluted region by estimating these pollutants. Since air quality assessment involves multiple air pollutants, there may be inherent uncertainty associated with data. This study employs a fuzzy Multi Attribute Decision Making (MADM) framework fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process-Entropy-fuzzy VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (FAHP-Entropy-FVIKOR) to model the impact of air pollution as a decision-making problem to address the uncertainty and assess the air quality during the Diwali festival from 2019 to 2021 in Tamil Nadu, India. An integrated weighting approach is utilised to determine the weights of the air pollutants using a fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process and Entropy methods. Mainly, the fuzzy VIKOR approach is employed to rank the polluted regions. The validation of the proposed model is established through a comparative analysis using Spearman’s rank correlation with two other existing fuzzy MADM methods. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis is conducted to evaluate the influence of priority weights and the interdependence of pollutants in determining regional rankings. The results conclude that a strong positive correlation is attained between the proposed and existing methods and the highest levels of air pollution during the festival period are observed in Gandhi Nagar (2019), Rayapuram (2020), T. Nagar, Sowcarpet and Triplicane (2021) in their respective years. These findings substantiate the consistency and effectiveness of the proposed approach.