An Integrated Method with PROMETHEE and Conflict Analysis for Qualitative and Quantitative Decision-Making: Case Study of Site Selection for Wind Power Plants

Abstract

Multiple-criteria decision-making is common in our daily life. The probabilistic linguistic term set is an effective tool to represent both simple and cognitive complex linguistic expressions given by individuals and groups completely. In this paper, the PROMETHEE (Preference Ranking Organization METHod for Enrichment Evaluations) is enhanced by integrating with a conflict analysis to solve general multiple-criteria decision-making problems with both quantitative and qualitative criteria. Firstly, to capture the inherent uncertainty of evaluations, interval numbers are used to expresses the values of quantitative criteria while probability linguistic term sets are used to scale the qualitative criteria. Then, a preference function for both quantitative and qualitative criteria is proposed. In addition, a conflict analysis is presented and added to the PROMETHEE, which can derive the preference, indifference, and incomparability (PIR) relations of alternatives. A reference point is given to select the thresholds for the PIR relations. Finally, the improved PROMETHEE is highlighted by a case study concerning site selection of the wind power plant.