Mathematical Problems in Engineering
Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 242187, 14 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/242187
Research Article

Investment Decision Support for Engineering Projects Based on Risk Correlation Analysis

1College of Architectural Engineering, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao 266109, China
2School of Civil Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116023, China

Received 2 October 2012; Accepted 31 October 2012

Academic Editor: Fei Kang

Copyright © 2012 Yan Liu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Investment decisions are usually made on the basis of the subjective judgments of experts subjected to the information gap during the preliminary stages of a project. As a consequence, a series of errors in risk prediction and/or decision-making will be generated leading to out of control investment and project failure. In this paper, the variable fuzzy set theory and intelligent algorithms integrated with case-based reasoning are presented. The proposed algorithm manages the numerous fuzzy concepts and variable factors of a project and also sets up the decision-making process in accordance with past cases and experiences. Furthermore, it decreases the calculation difficulty and reduces the decision-making reaction time. Three types of risk correlations combined with different characteristics of engineering projects are summarized, and each of these correlations is expounded at the project investment decision-making stage. Quantitative and qualitative change theories of variable fuzzy sets are also addressed for investment risk warning. The approach presented in this paper enables the risk analysis in a simple and intuitive manner and realizes the integration of objective and subjective risk assessments within the decision-makers' risk expectation.