A fuzzy decision support system for sustainable construction project selection: an integrated FPP-FIS model

Abstract

Sustainability has become a key concern for project selection in construction industries. Determining the best sustainable project based on various sustainability attributes is a very complicated decision. Accordingly, developing a suitable decision support framework can be very helpful for decision makers to attain planned business goals and complete projects at the right time with good quality. This research develops a decision support model which helps managers to understand the concept of sustainability in construction project selection and choose the best project using a new integrated Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) approach under uncertainty by integrating Fuzzy Preference Programming (FPP) as a modification of Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP), with Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) as a fuzzy rule-based expert system. In the first phase of the research, fifteen sustainability attributes were selected. In the second phase, the final weight of each attribute was computed by using FPP. In the last phase, the most appropriate project was selected by running the weighted FIS. The results showed that Project 3 (P3) is the best project. Finally, two different evaluative tests were also applied to verify the validity and robustness of the developed model.