The Most Common Multi- Criteria Decision Making Techniques in Environmental Issues

Devising and following a sustainable future for the environment is a major challenge for decision-makers around the world. The decision to create, control or guide systems, requires models which include all factors affecting the system, stakeholders and the receiving environment. This study aimed to help environmental managers and activists choose the best multiple attribute decision-making model (MADM), based on the unique characteristics of each technique, for their specific project. Extensive technical diversity of MADMs has confused users and analysts in selection and application of suitable methods to deal with real-world problems. In similar problems, different MADMs lead to dissimilar results in at least 40 percent of cases. Thus, identifying the strengths and weaknesses of each decision-making method is crucial for decision makers, so they can choose the best method to tackle different issues. In this paper, the most widely used multi attribute decision making techniques including AHP, ANP, TOPSIS, SAW, VIKOR, ELECTRE, PROMETHEE and Grey analysis were introduced and compared. Also, several comparative studies of these techniques and some of the environmental studies that had used these methods were reviewed.