Comparison of Weighting Assessment Techniques and its Integration with GIS-Based Multicriteria Decision Making

Abstract

This study compares the methods of weighting assessment techniques including the ranking, rating, pairwise comparison, and trade-off analysis and its integration with geographic information system (GIS) based multicriteria decision making (MCDM) to evaluate the suitable sites for urban development in Mussoorie municipal area, Dehradun district, Uttarakhand (India). For this purpose IKONOS satellite data and topographical sheet were used to generate various thematic layers using ArcGIS software. Six criteria including slope, road proximity, land use/cover, land values, geological formation and aspect were used for appropriate land evaluation. The generated thematic maps of these criteria were normalized using weighting assessment techniques. By using these techniques a weight for each criterion was generated by comparing them with each other according to their importance. With the help of these weights and criteria, final site suitability map for each weighting methods was prepared. In this paper the integrated approach of weighting assessment techniques and GIS based MCDM represents a major contribution towards the development of effective spatial decision support systems.