ELECTRE III and IV decision aids in an environmental problem

This paper gives a description and analysis of the use of ELECTRE III and IV decision aids in the context of choosing a solid waste management system in two different real applications in Finland. Both methods fit this context well in general, since the problem involves many criteria and many ‘decision makers’. The available data are imprecise, which also favours the use of outranking methods. In addition to the real applications, we also study the choice behaviour offered for decision makers in connection with these methods by looking at some test results obtained from randomly generated problems. In general, the results of ELECTRE III and IV do not differ substantially from those from the application of traditional value functions.