Criteria interdependency in Multi-criteria Decisionmaking on sustainability

Criteria interdependency in Multi-criteria Decisionmaking on sustainability: Desalination for resource recovery case study

LI, CHANGLIN (TU Delft Civil Engineering & Geosciences)

van Loosdrecht, Mark C.M. (mentor)
de Kreuk, M.K. (graduation committee)
Xevgenos, Dimitris (graduation committee)
Ktori, R. (graduation committee)

Delft University of Technology

Delft University of Technology

Civil Engineering | Environmental Engineering

Water Mining

2023

There is a rising concern on the sustainability of Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) desalination. In this study, Multi-criteria Decision-making (MCDM) is applied to compare the sustainability performance of various ZLD scenarios, which is part of a Strong Sustainability (SS) assessment of desalination. ZLD desalination systems are considered to be complex and have intricate interdependence among various factors, which were seldom recognized in previous research. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of interdependence among criteria on the MCDM process, with a desalination case study from Water Mining project used for demonstration. A transparent MCDM methodology is proposed in this study, which consists of Best Worst Method – Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (BWM-DEMATEL), hierarchical clustering, and Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluations (PROMETHEE).
In the desalination case study, the use of hierarchical clustering allows for the identification and preservation of both majority and minority opinions, based on which, the same ranking of desalination scenarios is produced through PROMETHEE. Concerning the interdependence among criteria, the results reveal that it can help identify the crucial factors for improvement of sustainability performance of the alternatives. In addition, by considering it, the understanding of criteria is enhanced, which leads to more concentrated opinions of stakeholders in the desalination case. However, the findings indicate that the influence of incorporating the criteria independency on the final decisions is restricted in cases insensitive to weight variation.
The application of BWM-DEMATEL method is a complex and time-consuming activity. Considering the effectiveness and the cost of implementation, BWM-DEMATEL might be not as worthy of application in this case study. Inspired by this, it is meaningful to develop an approach to estimate the impact of the interdependence among criteria on the alternatives ranking in a certain decision problem in the future.

Multi-criteria Decision-making
Zero Liquid Discharge
Desalination
Sustainability
Interdependency

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:6e860a90-bf58-4eef-abe2-3261202f5923

2023-08-16

Student theses

master thesis

© 2023 CHANGLIN LI