Sustainability, Vol. 11, Pages 1099: Water allocation analysis of the Zhanghe River basin using the Graph Model for Conflict Resolution with incomplete fuzzy preferences (Sustainability)

An incomplete fuzzy preference framework for the Graph Model for Conflict Resolution (GMCR) is proposed to handle both complete and incomplete fuzzy preference information. Usually, decision makers` (DMs`) fuzzy preferences are assumed to be complete fuzzy preference relations (FPRs). However, in real-life situations, due to lack of information or limited expertise in the problem domain, any DM`s preference may be an incomplete fuzzy preference relation (IFPR). An inherent advantage of the proposed framework for GMCR is that it can complete the IFPRs based on additive consistency, which is a special form of transitivity, a common property of preferences. After introducing the concepts of FPR, IFPR, and transitivity, we propose an algorithm to supplement IFPR, that is, to find an FPR that is a good approximation. To illustrate the usefulness of the incomplete fuzzy preference framework for GMCR, we demonstrate it using to a real-world conflict over water allocation that took place in the Zhanghe River basin of China.