Development of Green Building Rating System Using AHP and Fuzzy Integrals: A Case of India

Abstract

The greenness of a building is measured through green building assessment tools. These tools have limitations because they cannot be applied to all regions. The aim of this research was to develop a green building assessment tool that can rate the greenness of new buildings in India. For this, a study was conducted by adopting nine green building components with 34 attributes relevant to the measurement of greenness. For evaluating the green building index (GBI), a three-level hierarchical structure was constructed in which the GBI is at Level 1, and the nine components and 34 attributes are at Levels 2 and 3, respectively. In this study, an integrated approach consisting of an analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and fuzzy integrals was used. The 42 responses obtained from green building experts were used to find the weights of the components using the AHP. The relative importance of different attributes was computed using fuzzy measures and fuzzy integrals. Finally, the weighted-sum method (WSM) was employed to get the overall GBI. The results of the proposed approach are compared with Indian case studies. The findings of this article can be helpful to green building planners, designers, and developers.