Application of interval type-2 fuzzy sets DEMATEL methods in maritime transportation: The case of ship collision

Accident analyse in marine industry is one of the critical issues for safety practitioners to prevent loss of life. Although considerable efforts were undertaken to prevent marine accident, numerous researches revealed that marine accidents are still on-going. In order to minimize accidents in the marine transportation, this paper presents a proactive decisionmaking tool which is integrating Decision-Making Trail and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method with interval type-2 fuzzy sets (IT2FSs). As the DEMATEL enables to analyse cause and effect relationship in decision-making, the IT2FSs overcome ambiguity and vagueness of linguistic assessment of decision-makers through the DEMATEL. Thus, significant accident causal factors and their effects can be analysed on the basis of cause-effect diagram. The application of proposed approach is demonstrated with a real ship collision case. Beside its theoretical contribution, the proposed approach provides practical benefits to ship owners and operators to perceive cause and effect relationship and to avoid marine accident.