Design and Management of Regional Systems by Fuzzy Ratings and Polyhedral Dynamics (MCQA)

Multicriterion Q-analysis (MCQA) is a multicriterion decision making (MCDM) technique based on a form of polyhedral dynamics called Q-analysis. In brief, Q-analysis views the decision problem as a kind of multidimensional graph, or simplicial complex, in which the decision alternatives form multidimensional simplices, the vertices of which are the criteria for which that project was found to be satisfactory. Combined with fuzzy sets (Duckstein and Kempf 1981), MCQA has been used to select a design for a water supply system in the Tisza Easin in Hungary, a case study which has been approached by a number of other multicriterion techniques (ELECTRE: David and Duck-stein 1976; multiattribute utility theory: Keeney and Wood 1977; compromise programming: Duckstein and Opricovic 1980). Results were similar to those obtained using multiattribute utility theory. Another case study, the Santa Cruz River basin in Southern Arizona, has also been investigated by means of several techniques (Gershon and Duckstein 1983) including MCQA (Pfaff and Duckstein 1981).