Pandemic hospital site selection: a GIS-based MCDM approach employing Pythagorean fuzzy sets

Abstract

COVID-19 poses many challenges for hospitals around the world. Each country attempts to solve the problems in its hospitals using different methods. In Turkey, two pandemic hospitals were built in İstanbul, the most crowded province. In addition, some hospitals were designated as pandemic hospitals. This study focuses on the methods used for site selection for a pandemic hospital in Atakum, a district of Samsun City, Turkey. As a solution to the problem, initially, spatial analysis was performed using GIS to produce maps based on seven criteria obtained from the insight of an expert team. Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) augmented by interval-valued Pythagorean fuzzy numbers (PFNs) was then used to determine weights for the criteria. Distance to transportation network was the most important criterion influencing the selection process and the least significant one was the distance to fire stations. Based on the criteria weights, and five rules specified by the expert team, 13 suitable locations for a pandemic hospital were determined using GIS. The technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) method was used to determine the final ranking of 13 alternative locations (A1-A13). A10 was identified as the most appropriate site and A11 as the least appropriate site for a pandemic hospital. Finally, sensitivity analysis was performed to investigate how changes in weight values of the criteria affect the ranking of the alternatives.

Application of Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Analysis to Rural Spatial Sustainability Evaluation: A Systematic Review

“…Karasan et al [ 107 ] used DEMATEL to identify the most effective criteria and their internal and external dependencies. Boyaci et al [ 112 ] examined the problem of epidemiological hospital site selection in the context of COVID-19 and used the PFN-enhanced AHP method combined with GIS to determine the weight of criteria for the first time. Regarding Land use, Cui et al [ 93 ], based on the combination of Delphi and PCM or AHP to determine the weights, introduced the fuzzy method to establish a semantic fuzzy judgment matrix, and finally used the fuzzy operator to comprehensively evaluate the degree of rural industry–city integration.…”

“…The TOPSIS method in Site selection or Urban–rural planning is widely used to deal with site suitability [ 9 , 98 , 102 , 103 , 107 , 112 ], scheme comparison [ 115 , 118 ], traffic accessibility [ 113 , 118 ], and influencing factors [ 79 , 80 ] by calculating the Euclidean distance between alternative projects and the optimal and worst solutions. ANP is used to solve system problems with a feedback mechanism in villages [ 116 , 143 , 162 , 169 ].…”

“…As one of the more commonly used verification methods, SA is used 11 times in the sample [ 11 , 82 , 91 , 92 , 94 , 95 , 100 , 109 , 110 , 112 , 158 ], and is mainly used to test the standard score (or performance measure) of the effectiveness of alternative ranking. Empirical data are verified by comparing the results of MCDA with the follow-up data of existing research objects or the existing situation of the implemented program.…”

Selecting the field hospital location for earthquakes: an application for Ankara Province in Turkey

“…They developed a framework to support future National Health Service field hospitals of their model. Boyacı and S ¸is ¸man (2021) focused on the geographic information system related interval-valued Pythagorean fuzzy numbers based AHP (analytic hierarchy process) model for site selection for a pandemic hospital in Atakum, a district of Samsun city, Turkey. They used the TOPSIS (technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution) method to obtain the final ranking scores of thirteen locations.…”

Denoising Data in Signal Processing under the Complex Fuzzy Environment

“…He showed the potential of the proposed similarity measures in medical diagnosis and pattern recognition problems. Boyaci and Sisman studied the methods used for site selection for a pandemic hospital in Atakum under the Pythagorean fuzzy environment [8]. Molla et al [34] extended the PROMETHEE method under the environment of Pythagorean fuzzy sets.…”