Assessment of glacial geoheritage by multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) methods in the Yalnızçam Mountains, Northeastern Türkiye

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate the geoheritage potentials of glacial and periglacial landforms with quantitative methods. For this purpose, the Yalnızçam Mountains, located northeast of Anatolia, were chosen as the study area. In this mountainous mass, there are many landforms formed by the advance and retreat of glaciers as well as freeze-thaw processes. In the evaluation of the landforms detected in the field, the criteria of the preliminary geoheritage evaluation (PGA) method were used in an integrated manner with the fuzzy step wise weight evaluation rate analysis (SWARA) and evaluation based on distance from average solution (EDAS) methods, which are multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) techniques. The criteria were weighted with the SWARA technique, and the geoheritage potentials of the elements in the field were evaluated according to the criteria. After the evaluation and weighting process, a decision matrix was created with the EDAS method. The importance levels of the alternatives (geosites) were determined and ranked according to the criteria. According to the results, it has been determined that glacial lakes, cirques and glacial valleys are the most important elements. It is thought that the results will provide various contributions both theoretically and practically.