A novel Pythagorean fuzzy set integrated Choquet integral approach for vertical farming technology assessment

The fourth industrial revolution transforms the way we approach the existing traditional systems. Agriculture is one of the crucial areas where the transformation showed its effects. With the unstoppable growth of the world population, agricultural production is under pressure to meet the increasing food demand. Today, alternative solutions such as vertical farming (VF) are sought to reach sustainable and secure food chains. VF is an indoor plant production system. The investment cost for a VF is still a challenging issue for entrepreneurs and municipalities. Therefore, having in-depth analyses is the first critical step to create sustainable food systems. This paper mainly deals with the VF technology evaluation and establishes a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) framework to assess the VF systems. A novel Pythagorean fuzzy set (PFS) with Choquet Integral model integrated is recommended for VF technology evaluation. This study aims to characterize the most feasible option from a group of VF technologies considering a group of decision makers’ opinions. A real-case study for an ecological farm in Turkey is applied to test the proposed methodology's plausibility. The VF alternatives are assessed, and a suitable option is detected for the farm. A comparative assessment and a sensitivity analysis are conducted to test the suggested methodology's robustness and reliability. The outcomes and analysis are presented, and finally, conclusions and perspectives are provided. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd