Evaluation of the potential hazards of ship-generated waste in maritime industry using a type-2 fuzzy analytical hierarchy process

Abstract

Ships create a large amount of pollutions to marine and coastal environment where its pollutants have negative effects to human and maritime habitat. Depending on the nature of ship-generated waste, rules and regulations determine discharging procedures. This paper focuses on evaluating of potential hazards of ship-generated wastes on the environment whether it may be discharged into the sea or disposed of on port facilities. Thus, marine and costal environmental effects can be discussed analytically to improve human and ecological health. To achieve this purpose, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) extended with interval type-2 fuzzy sets (IT2FSs) is used. While AHP method is used for prioritizing the potential ship- generated waste, the IT2FSs deal with uncertainty and vagueness in the process of obtaining expert decision. Beside assessment of the environmental impacts, the paper contributes to enhance coastal and marine environmental awareness with respect to the ship-generated waste.