A Comprehensive Multi-Criteria Evaluation System for Deicer Assessment: Framework Development and Validation

The pursuit of sustainable winter road maintenance has intensified the need for deicers that balance functional effectiveness, economic viability, and minimal environmental impact. However, the absence of a systematic, multi-dimensional evaluation framework has hindered informed product selection and green procurement. This study develops and validates the Comprehensive Deicer Multi-criteria Evaluation System (CDMES)—a structured assessment framework that integrates economic, functional, environmental, and infrastructural sustainability dimensions. The evaluation index system was constructed for deicers, consisting of 18 indicators including preparation cost, engineering maintenance cost, operability of agent preparation, application difficulty, asphalt binder adhesion loss, minimum application concentration, proportion of active ingredients, effective time, ambient temperature, freezing point, solid dissolution rate, relative snow/ice-melting capacity, seed damage rate, chlorophyll attenuation, soil pH, aqueous solution pH, steel–carbon corrosion rate, and pavement friction attenuation rate. Subsequently, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was employed to determine the weight of each indicator, and evaluation criteria were established in accordance with relevant standards and literature. Finally, this weight determination method, combined with the simple additive weighting (SAW) method for index aggregation, forms a quantitative evaluation model. These elements together constitute a comprehensive deicer evaluation system, designated as the Comprehensive Deicer Multi-criteria Evaluation System (CDMES). Validation using three representative deicers—sodium chloride, a composite chloride-based formulation, and an organic acetate-based product—demonstrated that the CDMES can effectively discriminate product performance across multiple sustainability dimensions and identify critical weaknesses that may be obscured by purely compensatory scoring. The framework offers a transparent and reproducible decision-support tool for winter maintenance managers seeking to align deicer selection with sustainability objectives.