the applying ism/fanp approach for appropriate location selection of health centers

the main purpose of this paper is to present a fuzzy multi-criteria decision making (fmadm) model for appropriate location selection of a health center. therefore, we identify sixteen criteria and sub-criteria for selecting a health center location. these criteria and sub-criteria have been obtained from literature reviews and practical interviews. this paper proposes a method which combines the methods of the interpretive structural modeling (ism) and the fuzzy analytic network process (fanp) procedures to deal with the problem of the sub-systems interdependence and feedback. also the methods of fuzzy set theory, fuzzy analytic hierarchy process and fuzzy analytical network process are used to combine decision-makers’ assessments about criteria weightings. finally, an empirical study for the location selection of a health center in ramsar is conducted to demonstrate the computational process and effectiveness of fmadm proposed by this paper.