Proportional hesitant 2-tuple linguistic distance measurements and extended VIKOR method: Case study of evaluation and selection of green airport plans

Building green airports can be regarded as among the most promising routes to sustainable development of ecosystems and human health. This study aims at addressing the problem of green airport plan selection under an uncertain context by developing an uncertain multiattribute group decision making (MAGDM) model. In the proposed model, the assessment information is characterized in the form of a proportional hesitant 2-tuple linguistic term set (PH2TLTS), which incorporates in binary form linguistic information that can accurately quantify subjective assessment information provided under uncertainty. The weights of assessment attributes of green airport plans are obtained automatically through a nonlinear programming model, which enhances the robustness of the decision-making method. Subsequently, on the basis of PH2TLTSs, three distance measures are proposed: the proportional hesitant 2-tuple linguistic Jaccard distance (PH2TLJD), the supplementary proportional hesitant 2-tuple linguistic normalized Minkowski distance (SPH2TLNMD) and the cluster-based proportional hesitant 2-tuple linguistic normalized Minkowski distance (CBPH2TLNMD). The TOPSIS-based comparison method proposed here can better determine the priorities of PH2TLTSs. The ranking and selection of green airport plans are derived using the PH2TL-VIKOR model. Finally, a case study accompanied by sensitivity and comparative analyses is performed to verify the rationality and feasibility of the proposed model.