Evaluation of Potentials for Urban Planning Using the Fuzzy FUCOM-IMF SWARA-Fuzzy OPARA Model

Considering the characteristics of urban planning that are becoming increasingly demanding, and the trend that urban zones should meet users’ needs based on the principle of everything in one place, this paper evaluates the potentials of urban zones in Novi Sad. An expert analysis defined 25 criteria related to urban, traffic, architectural, environmental and sociological aspects to assess the current potentials of urban zones in a sustainable manner. Based on these criteria, 10 urban zones were evaluated using a multi-structure fuzzy MCDM model, including: the Fuzzy FUCOM, IMF SWARA and Fuzzy OPARA methods, and the Fuzzy Heronian Mean and Fuzzy Bonferroni operators. Fuzzy FUCOM was applied to determine the importance of the main groups of criteria, while IMF SWARA was used to determine the importance of sub-criteria, with the final weights obtained using the Fuzzy Heronian Mean operator. The Fuzzy OPARA method was implemented to determine the rankings of urban zones based on the potentials they offer. This model represents an innovation, as it is being presented for the first time in the literature. The final values of the urban zones show that Liman and the Center are the two urban zones with the greatest potential, which was confirmed through extensive verification analysis. Such modeling can provide support in the sense that the management of the city can obtain information about the shortcomings and potentials of the location, which allows for the definition of a more specific planning and development policy, based on the previously verified state.