Multi-criteria Temporal Intelligent Decision Support System for Sustainable Energy Mix Assessment

Intelligent decision support systems (DSSs) are popular, helpful, and widely used in many areas requiring sustainability assessment. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate an intelligent decision support system that enables multi-criteria evaluation, taking into account the temporal dynamics of the performance of the evaluated alternatives. The framework of this DSS is powered by the novel method named DARIA-EDAS (Data vARIability Assessment- Evaluation based on Distance from Average Solution). This temporal multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) method enables the evaluation of alternatives with simultaneous consideration of multiple evaluation criteria and the temporal integration of the obtained scores into a single unambiguous score in the form of assessment values and rankings. The performance of the proposed DSS was demonstrated in this research through the example of a multi-criteria temporal assessment of Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7) implementation by selected European countries. The methodical framework in the proposed DSS provides a rapid, automated, and objective evaluation of a multi-criteria temporal decision-making problem and produces an unambiguous, easy-to-interpret result. The results obtained confirmed the usefulness of the developed DSS in the multi-criteria temporal assessment of sustainable development concerning sustainable energy mix.