Performance analysis of domestic energy usage of European cities from the perspective of externalities with a combined approach based on type 2 neutrosophic fuzzy sets

Abstract

Cities are the urban areas that are most strongly affected by externalities of energy usage. The energy requirements of individuals who live in urban areas are based on their various needs for heating, cooling, transportation, cooking, and so on. For this purpose, inhabitants of cities use various types of energy resources, such as coal, natural gas, electricity, solar energy, and oils. Each energy source has different effects on the environment and on the social and economic lives of people, and this chapter examines the impacts of these resources in urban areas by considering some positive and negative aspects. In particular, domestic energy usage requires a detailed examination. Externalities of urban transportation have been an exciting subject for scholars, as access to data is easier with fewer complications. Keeping these gaps in the literature in mind, this chapter focuses on domestic energy usage and its externalities, such as emissions and environmental pollution, and proposes an extended version of CRiteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC) and multiattribute utility theory (MAUT) techniques with the help of type 2 neutrosophic fuzzy sets to evaluate the externalities of domestic energy usage in urban areas. The proposed combined approach based on type 2 neutrosophic numbers identifies the criteria weights using the CRITIC technique and ranks the alternatives with the help of the MAUT approach. According to the results obtained by applying the proposed model, the most influential criterion has been determined to be space cooling. Amsterdam is the best city having good and satisfactory performance concerning ten different externalities indicators, that is, energy usage, emissions, environmental pollution, and so on. The validity of the proposed mixed approach has been tested by performing a comprehensive sensitivity analysis consisting of three stages, and the obtained results prove the validity and applicability of the model. © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.