Assessment of transportation investments feasibility studies with fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making techniques

Abstract

Transportation investments are a unique development tool in the economic growth of countries. This study aims to reveal the importance of feasibility studies in the evaluation of transportation investments in Turkey. A three-stage model was created for this reason in order to assess the studies. Fuzzy logic and Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) techniques are combined in the developed model. In Stage 1, criteria and alternatives are determined. In Stage 2, the Best-Worst Method, a weighting method, was used to identify importance levels of the criteria. In Stage 3, a multi-criteria fuzzy evaluation method is suggested by using the weighted criteria fuzzy TOPSIS and fuzzy VIKOR methods. There isn't a study that uses MCDM techniques for transportation project feasibility studies. To show how successful the suggested model is, an actual case study was carried out. This study has shown that Financial Feasibility Factors (C7) and Feasibility Factors in Terms of Transportation (C4) are the two most significant criteria, respectively, out of the nine primary criteria that should be included in feasibility studies for transportation projects. Following that, decision-makers ranked the five alternatives according to their preferences after evaluating them using assessment criteria derived from the primary criterion. The suggested approach addresses the impact of the concerns that should be included in the projects on investment decisions and allows for a more thorough examination of feasibility studies.