Multi-Attribute Decision Making on Inter-Basin Water Transfer Projects

One of the best ways to control water shortages in the central region of Iran is Inter-Basin Water Transfer (IBWT). Efficient decision making on this subject is, however, a real challenge for the water authorities in Iran. These decisions should include multiple attributes, model uncertainty and, also, the optimistic/pessimistic view of the decision makers. The Ordered Weighted Averaging (OWA) operator can be used as an efficient Multi-Attribute Decision Making (MADM) method. This paper will introduce a new method to obtain the order weights of this operator. The new method is based on a combination of fuzzy quantifiers and neat OWA operators. Fuzzy quantifiers are usually applied in soft computing to model the optimism degree of the decision maker. In using neat operators, the ordering of the inputs is not needed, resulting in better computation efficiency. The theoretical results will be illustrated in a case study by solving an MADM problem with four IBWT projects for the Zayanderud basin. The results demonstrate that more sensitive decisions can be obtained by using the new method.