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Sustainability Index: A Fuzzy Approach for a Municipal Decision Support System

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Recent Developments and the New Direction in Soft-Computing Foundations and Applications

Part of the book series: Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing ((STUDFUZZ,volume 361))

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Abstract

Changing the behavior and habits of people and promoting sustainable production and consumption, has caused investment and action by Governments in promoting sustainability as a development model. Although many studies have been developed to evaluate the conditions for sustainability, few take into account the economic, environmental and social aspects altogether. Thus, the aim of this study is the development of an index to measure the degree of sustainability of municipalities using indicators for the social, demographic, economic and environmental dimensions. The methodology employed here is based on the concepts of fuzzy logic which models is subjectivity, uncertainty and imprecision. The index is applied to all 5,565 municipalities in Brazil generating a national sustainability study. After an assessment of the data using our index, a comparison is made with the Municipal Human Development index. Similar results are obtained by both methodologies. However, we argue that a fuzzy logic approach is useful since it uses linguistic variables and is intuitive to implement. Thus, the sustainability index is suitable to aggregate the various indicators and it is an important tool for decision makers. Since it provides information that is useful for the formulation, monitoring and evaluation of public policies.

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Acknowledgements

S. R. M. M. Roveda thanks São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) for grant #2015/07714-4. J. A. F. Roveda thanks Capes for grant #1846-15-9. W. A. Lodwick thanks CNPq grant #400754/2014-2. This work is partially supported by FAPESP grant # 2015/07714-4, Capes grant #1846-15-9 and CNPq grant #400754/2014-2.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Ciência e Tecnologia, UNESP – University Estadual Paulista, Sorocaba, Sao Paulo, Brazil

    L. F. S. Soares, S. R. M. M. Roveda & J. A. F. Roveda

  2. Department of Mathematics, University of Colorado, Denver, CO, USA

    W. A. Lodwick

Authors
  1. L. F. S. Soares
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  2. S. R. M. M. Roveda
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  3. J. A. F. Roveda
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  4. W. A. Lodwick
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to L. F. S. Soares .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA

    Lotfi A. Zadeh

  2. Machine Intelligence Institute, Iona College, New Rochelle, New York, USA

    Ronald R. Yager

  3. Department of Information Technology and Programming, Azerbaijan Technical University, Baku, Azerbaijan

    Shahnaz N. Shahbazova

  4. Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

    Marek Z. Reformat

  5. Department of Computer Science, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, Texas, USA

    Vladik Kreinovich

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Soares, L.F.S., Roveda, S.R.M.M., Roveda, J.A.F., Lodwick, W.A. (2018). Sustainability Index: A Fuzzy Approach for a Municipal Decision Support System. In: Zadeh, L., Yager, R., Shahbazova, S., Reformat, M., Kreinovich, V. (eds) Recent Developments and the New Direction in Soft-Computing Foundations and Applications. Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing, vol 361. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75408-6_50

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75408-6_50

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-75407-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-75408-6

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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