Decision-support for environmental impact assessment: A hybrid approach using fuzzy logic and fuzzy analytic network process

The decision-making on approval of environmental impact assessment (EIA) is an intrinsically complex multi-dimensional process because it does not only consider the scientific facts but also reflect subjective values. The use of decision-support methods to balance facts and values can be beneficial for decision makers. This paper attempts to propose an integrated decision-support framework that employs fuzzy logic (FL) to manipulate the subjectivity as decision makers do in appraising the facts and values, significance-acceptability transformation (SAT) to incorporate standards and decision makers’ risk attitude into decision-making process, and fuzzy analytic network process (FANP) to manage the dependences among environmental factors and suggest an overall acceptability of the proposal. Finally, the proposed approach will be applied to the EIAs of construction projects, exemplified in a case study of the Taiwan High-Speed Rail project.