Estimating the value of monumental olive trees: Designing a tool using multi-criteria decision making

Abstract

From ancient times the olive trees are closely connected with the history and culture of the Mediterranean countries. The focus of this paper is on designing a tool that can evaluate monumental Olive Trees that their age is not known. The proposed tool uses Multi-Criteria Decision Making for combining the different criteria that are taken into account while evaluating an olive tree and performing a two-level evaluation of the olive trees. In the first level of evaluation, SAW is used for evaluating the cultural and physical value of an olive tree and deciding whether it is monumental and if it going to be added in the final set of alternative trees that are going to be further evaluated. In the second level of evaluation, the final set of monumental trees is evaluated using TOPSIS in order to rank the alternative trees and find the one with the best ecotouristic value.