The most livable city selection in Turkey with the grey relational analysis

Purpose This study has two main objectives: (1) to expand the application areas of grey system theory and (2) to select the most livable city in Turkey. Design/methodology/approach Choosing the most livable city is a complex problem that requires many criteria to be considered. It is important to select decision points according to which the criteria selection will be made and to what extent the criteria will affect the evaluation. For this purpose, a questionnaire was prepared to determine the criteria to be used in the assessment. The survey results were evaluated by the factor analysis (FA) and it was found that the criteria included in the survey were grouped under seven factors. Then, criteria weights were assigned to the determined criteria using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). At the last stage, Turkey's six most popular cities are graded using the grey relational analysis (GRA) to reduce the uncertainty existing in the process of evaluation. Findings The obtained results indicated that the most livable city in Turkey is Istanbul. Istanbul is followed by Izmir, Antalya, Eskisehir, Bursa and Ankara, respectively. Considering that Istanbul is a center of attraction in many respects, this result is not a surprise for many people. It is also observed that the results obtained overlap with similar studies in the literature. Originality/value Grey system theory and grey numbers have not been previously used to select the most livable city. With this aspect, this study has expanded the application of grey system theory and made an important contribution to the literature.