A prioritized aggregation operator-based approach to multiple criteria decision making using interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets: A comparative perspective

Within the environment of interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy (IVIF) sets, this paper develops a prioritized aggregation operator-based approach to handling multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) problems in which there exists a prioritization relationship over evaluative criteria. The prioritization between the criteria is modeled by assessing the IVIF weights that are associated with criteria dependence on the satisfaction of the higher priority criteria. Then, a new IVIF prioritized aggregation operator is presented to aggregate the IVIF ratings of the alternatives with respect to the prioritized criteria. Based on synthetic evaluations given by the IVIF prioritized aggregation operator, the ranking order of the alternatives can be determined according to the overall evaluation values. The feasibility and applicability of the proposed method are illustrated by the practical problem of watershed site selection. Moreover, a comparative analysis with other relevant methods is conducted to validate the effectiveness. The comparative results show that our proposed prioritized aggregation operator-based method is appropriate and effective for managing MCDA problems when there are uncertainties expressed by the IVIF sets. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.