Multiple Criteria Decision Making for Sustainable Development Goals of United Nations

Dear Colleagues,

As the UN has called for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) since 2015, balancing economic growth, social welfare, and sustainability planning has become a complex issue [1]. We should consider this issue by considering the impacts of multiple dimensions, such as technology, society, the economy, and the environment. Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) is a management technique to deal with conflicting dimensions and performs well for a compromised solution; therefore, we expect to see modern methods developed to support sustainability via MCDM today. Any extensive review, application, case study, or operational technique with MCDM to support sustainability is welcome.

In the emerging era of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that the UN calls for, decision making has become complicated and turned into an art, resulting from the involvement of multiple stakeholders or criteria with conflicting interests [2]. For example, when we look at stakeholders, they may include government, academia, industry, and even more. When viewing the criteria, we should balance the dimensions of technology, society, economics, environment, and welfare, etc. Multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) is a powerful tool in operational research to find the compromised solution in complex scenarios toward sustainability [3]. This MCDM tool has become popular in the field of sustainable planning due to the flexibility it provides to the ability to resolve conflicts for decision makers [4]. As we are halfway to achieving the UN SDGs, this Special Issue expects to see how international scholars use the MCDM tool to solve any case of the 17 SDGs suggested by the UN. These efforts will develop an insight or pathway supported by MCDM techniques, leading us to a better sustainable world by resolving conflicting objectives/criteria for those we face nowadays.

We encourage international scholars to use any MCDM tool (https://ghtzeng.weebly.com/mcdm.html) to solve any case related to the 17 SDGs that the UN suggested, including the following goals: (1) No Poverty (SDG1), (2) Zero Hunger (SDG2), (3) Good Health and Well-Being (SDG3), (4) Quality Education (SDG4), (5) Gender Equality (SDG5), (6) Clean Water and Sanitation (SDG6), (7) Affordable and Clean Energy (SDG7), (8) Decent Work and Economic Growth (SDG8), (9) Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure (SDG9), (10) Reduced Inequalities (SDG10), (11) Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG11), (12) Responsible Consumption and Production (SDG12), (13) Climate Action (SDG13), (14) Life under Water (SDG14), (15) Life on Land (SDG15), (16) Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions (SDG16), and (17) Partnerships for The Goals (SDG17).

References
1. Stević, Ž., Pamučar, D., Puška, A., & Chatterjee, P. (2020). Sustainable supplier selection in healthcare industries using a new MCDM method: Measurement of alternatives and ranking according to COmpromise solution (MARCOS). Computers & Industrial Engineering, 140, 106231.
2. Stojčić, M., Zavadskas, E. K., Pamučar, D., Stević, Ž., & Mardani, A. (2019). Application of MCDM methods in sustainability engineering: A literature review 2008–2018. Symmetry, 11(3), 350.
3. Lahane, S., & Kant, R. (2022). Investigating the sustainable development goals derived due to adoption of circular economy practices. Waste Management, 143, 1-14.
4. Doumpos, M., Ferreira, F. A., & Zopounidis, C. (2021). Multiple Criteria Decision Making for Sustainable Development. Springer International Publishing.

Prof. Dr. Yuh-Wen Chen
Prof. Dr. Gwo-Hshiung Tzeng
Guest Editors

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• multiple criteria decision making
• sustainable development goals (SDGs)
• economic
• welfare