Location Selection for Waste Disposal Boxes: A Geographic Information Systems Based Pythagorean Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis

Abstract

Epidemic diseases dramatically change the nature of waste. The waste generated from a diverse range of medical and hazardous waste such as infected masks and gloves places a heavy burden on waste treatment systems. Disposal of this waste is vital to prevent pollution and protect natural resources. Source-separated collection is a crucial step in the disposal process. This study focuses on using geographic information systems-based Pythagorean fuzzy decision analysis to determine the location for face masks and gloves waste disposal boxes during the pandemic in Samsun city, Turkey. First, spatial analysis is carried out using geographic information systems to generate maps based on selected criteria. Subsequently, the analytic hierarchy process strengthened by interval-valued Pythagorean fuzzy numbers is utilized to obtain the criteria weights. A set of suitable locations for waste disposal boxes is identified according to the criteria weights and three additional conditions specified by the expert group. The technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution method is used to rank the locations. Sensitivity analysis is performed to illustrate how the ranking of the alternative locations is affected by changes in the criteria weights. The proposed model is compared with Pythagorean fuzzy analytic hierarchy process-complex proportional assessment.