Interdependence and Rationality Between Sustainable Indicators and Criteria—A Fuzzy AHP Approach

The rapid urbanization is likely to impose tremendous pressure on the available natural resources due to their depletion, seriously affecting the Social, Environmental, Economic and Technological (SEET) indicators. The identification of criteria and indicators to achieve Sustainable Construction (SC) is a challenging task in terms of balancing and interrelating them. The present study while investigating the most significant criteria that contribute to SC, establishes inter-relationship between them and SEET indicators by utilizing the Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), a Hybrid Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) method. Based on Delphi Technique (DT) and Relative Importance Index (RII), eight criteria have been identified including Water Efficiency, Materials and Waste Management, Health and Well-being, Energy Efficiency, Sustainable Sites, Social Welfare, Transportation, and Management. The findings of the study reveal that the criteria Materials and waste management and Energy Efficiency have attained the highest relative weights of 13.96 and 12.63 respectively. Similarly, among SEET indicators, the Environmental and Technological indicators have secured 30.15 and 28.52 relative weights respectively. This well-established inter-relation between indicators and criteria will facilitate the decision-makers/stakeholder to understand the degree of performance between sustainable criteria and indicators for achieving sustainable buildings. In addition to this, a computerized building assessment tool which can facilitate the formulation of guidelines by policy-makers was also developed.