Risk evaluation of excavation based on fuzzy decision-making model

A risk evaluation model for an excavation system incorporating the technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution with hybrid fuzzy sets (Pythagorean and triangular fuzzy sets) is developed. The proposed model consists of three phases: i) decision hierarchy construction, ii) multi-source data integration, and iii) high-risk factor identification. The proposed model was implemented considering expert judgements and monitoring data. To increase the reliability of the results, expert confidence index was utilized to assign relevant importance of judgements from consulted experts. The proposed model was adopted to identify high-risk factors. An excavation engineering project in Tianjin was applied to evaluate the performance of developed model. Results show that high-risk factors were identified. The developed model can be employed as a decision-making tool towards project managers for construction risk analysis and evaluation.