Risk assessment model selection in construction industry

Construction industry faces a lot of inherent uncertainties and issues. As this industry is plagued by risk, risk management is an important part of the decision-making process of these companies. Risk assessment is the critical procedure of risk management. Despite many scholars and practitioners recognizing the risk assessment models in projects, insufficient attention has been paid by researchers to select the suitable risk assessment model. In general, many factors affect this problem which adheres to uncertain and imprecise data and usually several people are involved in the selection process. Using the fuzzy TOPSIS method, this study provides a rational and systematic process for developing the best model under each of the selection criteria. Decision criteria are obtained from the nominal group technique (NGT). The proposed method can discriminate successfully and clearly among risk assessment methods. The proposed approach is demonstrated using a real case involving an Iranian construction corporation. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.