Technique selection and evaluation of ballast water management methods under an intuitionistic fuzzy environment: An information axiom approach

Abstract

A recent survey showed the reluctance of shipowners to install ballast water treatment systems onboard their ships. This raised a question on the acceptability of shipboard management of ballast water and the need to investigate the potential of non-shipboard alternatives to managing the menace of invasive species transfer via ships' ballast water. The aim of this article is to investigate the viability of both shipboard and onshore-based concepts of ballast water management with respect to the evaluation criteria stipulated in the Ballast Water Management Convention of the International Maritime Organization. To achieve that, an appropriate decision-making technique was selected using a robust procedure; this is critical in the evaluation and ultimate selection of an appropriate ballast water management method. A multi-criteria decision-making technique known as intuitionistic fuzzy multi-attribute axiomatic design which is a hybridized extension of fuzzy axiomatic design was employed for the selection process. The eventual selected technique was used to evaluate the ballast water management options based on the linguistic data collected from an interview with ballast water management experts. The novel applications of intuitionistic fuzzy multi-attribute axiomatic design in this article for technique selection and subsequently for ballast water management methods' evaluation exemplify not only the versatility of the technique as a decision-making tool but also showed a strong paradigm shift in experts' opinions about the future of ballast water management beyond just the traditional shipboard system.

A modified AD-TRIZ hybrid approach to regulation-based design and performance improvement of ballast water management system

“…Jing et al (2013) also evaluated different ballast water technologies with respect to the criteria using hybrid stochastic analytic hierarchy process (FSAHP). Kuroshi and Ölçer (2016) also carried out an expert evaluation of BWE, post-loading, pre-loading and shipboard treatment of ballast water using an intuitionistic fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making technique.…”

Review of the IMO Initiatives for Ship Energy Efficiency and Their Implications

“…This kind of selection allows the ship master to ensure lower resistance along the route. Ballast tanks can control the ship trim through a ballast water management system which must be designed for shipboard operation (Kuroshi and Ölçer, 2017).…”

Onshore ballast water management systems: National perspectives

“…The application of OBWRFs, including reception and treatment shows some advantages, identified by many researchers such as: economies of scale, proficiency of operаtors, spаtial аdvаntаge, redundаncy, аffordаbility, sаfety of crew, etc. (Donner, 2010;Kuroshi and Ölçer, 2016).…”