Multiattribute Spatial Decision-Making for Qualitative Information Processing as Applied to the Renewable Energy Generating Sites Prospection

The objective of this research is to develop methodological tools to consider qualitative information in solving spatial problems with their particular application to the determination of generating sites for renewable energy systems. This locational problem has a complex nature and its solution has to be capable to take into account a wide range of considerations, as well as evaluations of a qualitative character. In this sense, the proposed process of elaborating decisions starts with studies related to the spatial criteria, which are modeled and processed within the Spatial Multicriteria Analysis. The relative importance of the spatial criteria is established by the involved experts on the basis of the construction, transformation, and processing of preference relations within the framework of the Analytic Hierarchy Process. The resulting decision maps are generated by aggregating the spatial criteria, applying the Ordered Weighted Averaging operator and the linguistic quantifiers. These maps permit one to highlight rational solution alternatives, which, if necessary, are evaluated, compared, chosen, prioritized, and/or ordered, applying additional spatial criteria (of quantitative as well as qualitative character), by means of techniques for preference modeling in a fuzzy environment (within the framework of so-called $< X,R>$ models). The corresponding decision process permits one to take into account and process quantitative and qualitative spatial criteria as well as preferences and judgments of the experts. The paper results are illustrated by a Case Study related to the determination of the most suitable locational alternatives for renewable power plants in the Minas Gerais state, Brazil.