Multicriteria analysis of sustainable development indicators in the construction minerals industry in China

Mining and minerals is an important industry in China. Construction projects, in particular, are on the rise in Beijing. The construction minerals sector has already started responding to sustainability challenges, as demonstrated by the construction group. Thus, construction minerals are important in city development. The aim of this study was to develop a set of measurement and proposed hybrid method to analyze sustainable development indicators within economic categories under uncertainty. Evaluating the perceptions of sustainable indicators is a complex process because the requirements for environmental compliance tend to be vague and contradictory. In this study, the uncertainties in the evaluation process were resolved using a hybrid approach, which combines fuzzy set theory, the Delphi method, and a discrete multi-criteria method based on prospect theory for uncertainty (known as TODIM in Portuguese). The advantages of the developed hybrid approach are illustrated using a case study. The results show that the fuzzy TODIM approach can easily and effectively accommodate criteria for gain and loss functions, thereby enabling managers to improve sustainability indicators and reduce the overall environmental impact under uncertainty. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.