The recent boom of various integrated decision-making methods has attracted many researchers to the field. The recent integrated Analytic Network Process and Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (ANP–DEMATEL) methods were developed based on crisp numbers and fuzzy numbers. However, these numbers are incapable of dealing with the indeterminant and inconsistent information that exists in real-life problems. This paper proposes improvements to the integrated ANP–DEMATEL method by bringing together the neutrosophic numbers, the ANP method, and the DEMATEL method, which are later abbreviated to NS-DANP. The proposed NS-DANP method can handle the indeterminacy elements in the decision-making environment, as the single-valued neutrosophic numbers are used in the decision analysis. This proposed NS-DANP modification method includes linguistic variables representing the single-valued neutrosophic numbers (SVNNs), and also introduces the single-valued neutrosophic weighted averaging (SVNWA) aggregation operator to aggregate the decision makers’ judgments instead of the typical averaging method. The applicability of the proposed method is illustrated by a case study of the coastal erosion problem along the Peninsular Malaysia coastline, where 12 factors were considered. Three experts of coastal erosion from different organizations were invited to elicit their linguistic judgments on the cause–effect of the coastal erosion. The seven-step decision approach was developed to acquire the weightage of each coastal erosion factor. The outcome of this study reveals that coastal development is the riskiest factor toward coastal erosion. The weight of factors and the cause–effect diagram could be very helpful for government and stakeholders to project a better mitigation plan for the coastal erosion problem. Comparative analysis is also provided to check the feasibility of the proposed method.

This paper proposes a hesitant bipolar-valued neutrosophic set (HBVNS) based on the combination of bipolar neutrosophic sets and hesitant fuzzy sets. The proposed set generalizes the notions of fuzzy set, intuitionistic fuzzy set, hesitant fuzzy set, single-valued neutrosophic set, single-valued neutrosophic hesitant fuzzy set, bipolar fuzzy set and bipolar neutrosophic set. Further, we define the basic operational laws, union, intersection and complement for hesitant bipolar-valued neutrosophic elements (HBVNEs) and study its associated properties. Some relevant examples are also given to provide a better understanding of the proposed concept. Two aggregation operators are developed based on HBVNS which are the hesitant bipolarvalued neutrosophic weighted averaging (HBVNWA) and the hesitant bipolar-valued neutrosophic weighted geometric (HBVNWG). A decision making method is developed based on new sets and the proposed HBVNWA and HBVNWG operators. Finally, an illustrative example is given to show the applicability of the proposed decision making method. A comparative analysis with the existing methods is also provided.

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Decision making is the process of selecting the best choice out of multiple alternatives and multiple factors to be considered. Decision making which involves human judgments is always imprecise and subjective. Fuzzy AHP has been introduced to cater those deficiencies in traditional AHP. One of the vital issues in Fuzzy AHP is the consistency measure. The studies in that problem has been explored by many scholars, however, many applications still ignore the consistency measure in their works. Therefore, this paper aims to introduce the Cosine Consistency Index (CCI) proposed by Kou and Lin into Fuzzy AHP. The proposed methodology is applied to the case study of Setiu Wetlands coastal areas in Setiu, Terengganu to weight the factors of coastal erosion. The obtained results show that land use/cover change (17.4%) is the most contributing factor towards the coastal erosion. It is followed by sea area class (14%), erodibility (11%), population density (10.1%), shoreline evolution (9.9%), sedimentary discharge (8.7%), tidal range (7.2%), storm surge (7.1%), wave height (4.9%), budgetary revenue of local government (3.6%), relative sea level (3.3%) and coastal protection (2.8%). The proposed methodology is applicable to many other decision making problems. The applied cosine consistency index into the Fuzzy AHP evaluation process makes the obtained results more plausible and convincing.