An Improved Interval Evidential Reasoning Method for Freight Railway Route Selection Decision-Making in Mining Areas

An Improved Interval Evidential Reasoning Method for Freight Railway Route Selection Decision-Making in Mining Areas | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article An Improved Interval Evidential Reasoning Method for Freight Railway Route Selection Decision-Making in Mining Areas Daojiang Wei, Hongke Pan, Peng Xie, Yaoting Xiao This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7732190/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract In the decision-making process for railway route selection in mining areas, it not only impacts engineering construction and operational costs but also influences regional economic development and ecological conservation. To better handle uncertain information in decision-making and minimize the effects of human bias, this study proposes an improved interval evidential reasoning method. First, a bottom-up approach is used to construct a decision-making index system. The weights of the criteria, derived from three objective weighting methods—Entropy Method, Standard Deviation Method, and Criteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation Method—are treated as evidence. These weights are then fused using evidential reasoning to determine the final criteria weights. Next, the evaluation values of each alternative are transformed into relative importance scores. By introducing interval probability density functions, these scores are further converted into belief degrees. Finally, the interval evidential reasoning algorithm is applied to rank the alternatives. Comparative analysis with existing decision-making methods demonstrates that the proposed approach reduces unnecessary human intervention, effectively handles and preserves uncertainties in evaluation data, and produces results with higher credibility and interpretability. Physical sciences/Engineering Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental social sciences Physical sciences/Mathematics and computing Improved interval evidential reasoning Index weighting Decision-making for route scheme Freight rail Mining areas Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7732190","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":528288392,"identity":"5b19d3b8-fbb2-4046-9a36-dd14d3d9c211","order_by":0,"name":"Daojiang Wei","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA0klEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACNmbmgw8+VBxIgHKJ0MLH3pZsOOMMKVrkeM6YSfO2kaKFTSLHQJp33p08g+PHHzB8KDvMwD+7gZCWtALDudueFRucyTFgnHHuMIPEnQOEtCRvSHi77XDihgM5DMy8bYcZDCQSCGlJMDjAOweo5fzzB8x/idLCc8SwkbcBqOVGggEzI1FagIHMOOPY4WLJG28MDvacS+eRuEFAi3wz8/EfH2oO5/GdT3/44EeZtRz/DAJaUMABIOYhQf0oGAWjYBSMAlwAACklSvqxe5K2AAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"Hubei University of Arts and Science","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Daojiang","middleName":"","lastName":"Wei","suffix":""},{"id":528288393,"identity":"a97f4c58-769c-416f-b825-00964f012b9c","order_by":1,"name":"Hongke Pan","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Xinyu University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Hongke","middleName":"","lastName":"Pan","suffix":""},{"id":528288394,"identity":"6a5f829a-da7b-4fa0-9f12-affedf7e5c83","order_by":2,"name":"Peng Xie","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Wuhan Branch of China Railway Bridge Survey and Design Institute Group Co., Ltd","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Peng","middleName":"","lastName":"Xie","suffix":""},{"id":528288395,"identity":"689d52ac-05a2-4959-a42f-b7a2a17b39d6","order_by":3,"name":"Yaoting Xiao","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Hubei University of Arts and Science","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yaoting","middleName":"","lastName":"Xiao","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-09-28 06:38:18","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7732190/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7732190/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":94165532,"identity":"2f9bdf59-7a3f-4466-add9-4bfbe94c43b4","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-23 06:17:10","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1080638,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7732190/v1_covered_f2700ccc-f2d5-48bf-b9a3-9f22ee88f37a.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"An Improved Interval Evidential Reasoning Method for Freight Railway Route Selection Decision-Making in Mining Areas","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Improved interval evidential reasoning, Index weighting, Decision-making for route scheme, Freight rail, Mining areas","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7732190/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7732190/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"In the decision-making process for railway route selection in mining areas, it not only impacts engineering construction and operational costs but also influences regional economic development and ecological conservation. To better handle uncertain information in decision-making and minimize the effects of human bias, this study proposes an improved interval evidential reasoning method. First, a bottom-up approach is used to construct a decision-making index system. The weights of the criteria, derived from three objective weighting methods—Entropy Method, Standard Deviation Method, and Criteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation Method—are treated as evidence. These weights are then fused using evidential reasoning to determine the final criteria weights. Next, the evaluation values of each alternative are transformed into relative importance scores. By introducing interval probability density functions, these scores are further converted into belief degrees. Finally, the interval evidential reasoning algorithm is applied to rank the alternatives. 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