Using the fuzzy majority approach for GIS-based multicriteria group decision-making

This paper is concerned with developing a framework for GIS-based m multicriteria group decision-making using the fuzzy majority approach. The procedure for solving a spatial group decision-making problem involves two stages. First, each decision-maker solves the problem individually. Second, the individual solutions are aggregated to obtain a group solution. The first stage is operationalized by a linguistic quantifier-guided ordered weighted averaging (OWA) procedure to create individual decision-maker's solution maps. Then the individual maps are combined using the fuzzy majority procedure to generate the group solution map which synthesizes the majority of the decision-makers' preferences. The paper provides an illustrative example of the fuzzy majority method for a land suitability problem. It also demonstrates the implementation of the framework within the ArcGIS environment. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.