Bi-TOPSIS: A New Multicriteria Decision Making Method for Interrelated Criteria With Bipolar Measurement

This paper develops a new method called bi-technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (Bi-TOPSIS) to address the multicriteria decision making problems involving interrelated criteria using bipolar measurement with negative values. The Bi-TOPSIS method incorporates the capability of the bi-capacity technique into the TOPSIS to address two important issues: 1) how to measure the interactions between criteria and 2) how to aggregate values measured on a bipolar scale. In practical applications, this method allows the use of benchmarks to demarcate “good” from “bad” performance, thus enhancing the interpretability of the evaluation results. To examine its effectiveness, an empirical study on the evaluation of city social sustainability is conducted. The outcome of the study demonstrates the feasibility and applicability of the new Bi-TOPSIS method.