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In today's economy, information technology (IT) is vitally important, and the increasing use of the Internet, telecommunications services, and internal IT networks in organizations have led to rapid growth in the demands on big data processing. In general, site selection is a fundamental part of the design of a big data center (BDC), and a poor site decision can affect the sustainability of the facility. To construct a comprehensive assessment framework for a BDC, the following three categories of indicators are determined based on the "Specification for Design of Data Center" in GB50174-2017 of China: economic factors, natural climate environment factors, and energy resources factors. After explaining the rationality of choosing these indicators in detail, an integrated method that combines the multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method and the multi-choice goal programming (MCGP) model is proposed. The proposed approach uses two phases to conduct the decision procedure. First, the preference ranking organization method for enrichment evaluation (PROMETHEE) method is applied to evaluate the economic factors. Then, the evaluation results are added to the MCGP model as one of the goals of multi-objective programming. Second, the remaining five sub-indicators and the evaluation results generated from the first phase are formulated as a complete MCGP model. Finally, an empirical study on the site selection for the BDC is implemented based on the proposed method. The result shows that Guiyang is the most suitable place for locating a BDC in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fuel Cell Vehicles are considered as a promising alternative for future sustainable transportation, while the deployment of hydrogen refueling stations is one of the major barriers that blocking the commercial introduction of Fuel Cell Vehicles. Since the establishment of hydrogen infrastructures not only requires quite a large investment, but also needs efficient project management and operation. Therefore, how to finance and operate hydrogen infrastructures is a difficult question for decision makers. In this study, it introduced four business models for financing and operating hydrogen refueling stations: Build-Operate-Transfer, Transfer-Operate-Transfer, Public-Private-Partnership, and Asset- Backed Securitization, and identified six criteria for prioritizing them. Then, it employed Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process to determine the weight for the criteria, and compared the performance of these models with respect each criterion. Finally, the method of Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluations was used to determine the priority of each model for financing hydrogen refueling stations, and a Sensitivity Analysis was conducted to find the most appropriate model in different situations. The results indicated that financing difficulty, project risks, and financing costs are the most important factors for strategic investors to involve in financing hydrogen refueling stations. Among the four financing models, Public-Private-Partnership and Transfer-Operate-Transfer models are turned out to be more preferable for financing hydrogen infrastructure in China. Some policy implications have also been provided for the establishment of hydrogen refueling stations. • Six criteria were identified to prioritize four models for financing hydrogen refueling stations. • Financing difficulty, project risks, and financing costs are the main factors in selecting financing models. • PPP and TOT are more preferable for financing hydrogen infrastructures in China. • Policy interventions need targeted at policy design, technology innovation and facility improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Site selection is a key factor to the success of ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) project. It is a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) problem with a series of conflicting criteria involved. However, limited studies were found concerning this area and problems existing in classical MCDM methods tended to fail OTEC site selection decisions. Therefore, this paper proposes an extended MCDM method and establishes a new decision-making framework to select the optimal location. First, a comprehensive evaluation criteria system for OTEC site selection from the view of sustainability with 16 criteria involved is established. Second, feasible alternative sites for OTEC project are identified by PEST analysis. Third, an extended PROMETHEE (Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation) under intuitionistic fuzzy environment is proposed to avoid compensation assumptions. During the decision process, seven groups of experts shared the work and cooperated with each other according to their backgrounds. Finally, a real case is studied and sensitive analysis is conducted, demonstrating the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed method. This study can effectively improve OTEC site selection decision making quality and also extends the domains of intuitionistic fuzzy PROMETHEE applications. • A novel multi-criteria decision-making framework for site selection is proposed. • The criteria system for ocean thermal energy conversion site selection is constructed. • A case study is carried out in areas of Guangdong and Guangxi Provinces in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) as an efficient mode to provide public services through the government and social capital's cooperation has been in China for more than 30 years. In this paper, we propose an approach to evaluate PPP's advancement in different areas based on the subjective and objective information fusion. At first, we establish an index system from the perspective of the stakeholder. Then, considering that double hierarchy hesitant fuzzy linguistic term set (DHHFLTS) that has two hierarchies of linguistic term sets can describe the subjective linguistic information more accurately, it is applied in the paper to depict the subjective information. By applying the entropy of the DHHFLTS, a programming model is proposed to derive the attribute weight through combining subjective evaluation with objective data. In addition, we develop the double hierarchy hesitant fuzzy linguistic PROMETHEE combining the subjective and objective information (DHHFL-PROMETHEE-S&O) method. At last, we illustrate the index system and the method with the PPP's advancement evaluation problem, and we can find the best choice based on the ranking result. Meanwhile, we also find that the objective information and the subjective information are complementary in the evaluation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outsourcing logistics to third-party logistics (3PL) providers is becoming an increasing trend for companies seeking improved customer service and competitiveness. Choosing a suitable and competitive logistics provider has become more important than ever. In this study, we developed an evaluation and selection framework on strategic 3PL provider selection on the basis of a real case application in China. Multiple criteria and multiple stakeholders were considered to balance the various measurements in this framework. In the actual application, we chose the PROMETHEE technique as our specific evaluation method and we also assessed its effectiveness with further analysis. The results show that our proposed holistic framework is well suited for the strategic 3PL provider selection problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method has a widely application in management and energy field. Considering the broad development prospects of offshore wind power and deficiency of integrated coastal management, a decision framework combining triangular intuitionistic fuzzy numbers (TIFNs), Analytic Network Process (ANP) and Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluations (PROMETHEE) is proposed and applied in site selection of offshore wind power station (OWPS). The aim of this study is to provide theoretical and methodological support for the site selection decision-making of coastal wind power projects and to improve the benefits of integrated coastal management. Taking six criteria (wind resources, construction, economic, environment, society, risk) and the related sub-criteria into consideration, an evaluation system of OWPS site selection is established. The optimal location scheme is determined by the decision framework in current paper. After a sensitivity analysis and a comparative analysis, the result shows that decision framework has strong robustness and feasibility. Thus, the evaluation criteria and methodology in this paper can provide a theoretical reference for the development of coastal management and offshore wind power. • The study establishes a decision framework for OWPS site selection. • A novel index system for OWPS site selection is built. • The triangular intuitionistic fuzzy numbers are employed to dispose uncertainties. • The preference functions in PROMETHEE method have been applied practically and rank the optimal alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of the urgent need to protect the environment, it has become vital to deal with the dangers and particularities associated with the growth in hazardous industrial waste. Governments have begun to expand their investments in the environmental protection industry and have tightened enterprise environmental management requirements. The 13th Five-Year Plan period in China, in particular, increased the focus on the environmental supervision and enterprise environmental management. Because of the specific qualities of many types of hazardous waste, most enterprises do not have the ability to process hazardous waste and therefore must outsource the disposal to third-party contractors. However, choosing suitable hazardous waste disposal enterprises (HWDE) can be difficult. Therefore, to assist in the selection of appropriate hazardous waste disposal enterprises, this paper developed a comprehensive evaluation index system for hazardous waste disposal enterprises (EISHWDE). As multi-criteria decision-making problems involve qualitative evaluations that have semantic ambiguity, hesitant fuzzy linguistic term sets (HFLTS) were introduced to increase the accuracy of the evaluation process, an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) used to determine the objective indicator weights, and PROMETHEE (Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation) employed to determine the final order for the selected enterprises. This research developed a scientific evaluation model that industrial waste enterprises (IWE) and related organizations could use to objectively and systematically select suitable hazardous waste disposal enterprises. Then, the problems of uncertainty and fuzzy semantics in the evaluation process were solved, and the weight of each selection criteria and the ranking of alternative enterprises are given., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.