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'Decision Making is the act of choosing between two or more courses of action'. However, it must always be remembered that there may not always be a 'correct' decision among the available choices. There may have been a better choice that had not been considered, or the right information may not have been available at the time. Multiple-criteria evaluation problems consist of a finite number of alternatives, explicitly known in the beginning of the solution process. In Multiplecriteria design problems (multiple objective mathematical programming problems) the alternatives are not explicitly known. An alternative (solution) can be found by solving a mathematical model. The number of alternatives is either infinite or not countable (when some variables are continuous) or typically very large if countable (when all variables are discrete). But both kind of problems are considered as a subclasses of Multi Criteria Decision Making problems. The MCDM problems can also be divided into two major classes with respect to the way the weights of the alternatives are determined: Compensatory and Outranking Decision Making. The example of the former is Analytical hierarchy Process (AHP) and the latter is ELimination and Choice Expressing Reality (ELECTRE). The basic working principle of any MCDM method is same: Selection of Criteria, Selection of Alternatives, Selection of Aggregation Methods and ultimately Selection of Alternatives based on weights or outranking.Keywords Fuzzy decision making Á Analytical hierarchy process Á Outranking methods Á Decision making in water resources 2.1 Definition MCDM or MCDA are well-known acronyms for multiple-criteria decision-making and multiple-criteria decision analysis. MCDM is concerned with structuring and solving decision and planning problems involving multiple criteria. The purpose is to support decision makers facing such problems. Typically, there does not exist a

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In this investigation, we have put forward a novel multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) technique, intuitionistic fuzzy best-worst method (intuitionistic fuzzy BWM). Moreover, we have designed a novel hybrid MCDM technique called intuitionistic fuzzy best-worst analytic hierarchy process (intuitionistic fuzzy BWAHP) which is the amalgamation of intuitionistic fuzzy BWM and analytic hierarchy process (AHP). In this study, BWM finds its use to evaluate the weightage (or priority value) of criteria, and using AHP, the local weights of alternatives are decided. The proposed technique is utilized to recognize the most significant alternative (or indicator), for the efficiency of a water treatment plant. Observing the result, it can be said that the 'water quality' is the most responsible alternative. The consistency ratio value which is found by our proposed method is less, compared to the existing BWM and fuzzy BWM techniques. Finally, using a comparative study and sensitivity analysis, we verify the findings produced by our proposed method.

A novel porous polymer–inorganic hybrid biocomposite with various functional groups (hide substance/chitosan/hydroxyapatite) has been synthesized in simple, economic, and scalable process utilizing leather industry solid waste and seafood industry waste composed with hydroxyapatite. Physicochemical characterization of the material reveals formation of composites with homogenous distribution of the constituents in the material matrix. The composite is hard and porous (with 0.1632 cm 3 /g slit-shaped mesopores and micropores) having particle sizes 40–80 μm and a Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area of 55.54 m 2 /g. The material is polycrystalline in nature with a fair amount of amorphous substance and less hydrophilic in character than constituent polymers. The dye removal efficiency of the material has been tested with two model dyes, namely, methylene blue (MB) (cationic/basic dye) and sunset yellow (SY) (anionic/acid dye). Optimum adsorptions of 3.8 mg MB (pH 12, RT ≈ 27 °C) and 168 mg of SY (pH 3, RT ≈ 27 °C) have been found per gram of the composite material. Langmuir isotherm and pseudo second order rate models have been found to be the best-fit models to explain the equilibrium isotherm and kinetics of the adsorption process for both the dyes. However, higher and faster adsorption of SY in comparison with MB indicated higher binding efficiency of the material toward the acidic dye. Desorption of dyes from the dye-adsorbed material was studied using a suitable eluent of appropriate pH and recycling for five times showed without loss of efficiency. The prepared composite showed very high dye removal efficiency toward four different commercially used dyes (496 mg/g of Orange-NR, 477 mg/g of Red-VLN, 488 mg/g of Blue-113 dye, and 274 mg/g of Green-PbS dye) from their individual and cocktail solutions. It was also efficient to decolorize dye-bearing tannery exhaust bath. Hence, waste materials generated during industrial processes could be efficiently used for the decontamination of colored wastewater produced by various industries.