Intelligent fuzzy decision‐making system of afforestation in new cities: A case study of the New Administrative Capital, Egypt

Abstract

• Afforestation in new cities will be conducive to the improvement of overall energy. • Sustainable criteria are considered for decision-making. • Fuzzy AHP was applied to obtain the criteria weights. • Fuzzy TOPSIS of Alternatives was used to recommend suitable trees and plants. • A case study is proposed to illustrate the rationality of the proposed approach. The scarcity of water resources, economic development, and environmental protection are the most important challenges facing governments in dry areas. Proper and legalized new city afforestation projects can achieve maximum economic, environmental, and societal benefit. Therefore, afforestation projects are one of the most important elements of land uses in new cities for their effective role in addressing and reducing the number of negatives associated with urban growth. The problem of water shortage in the process of afforestation of new cities can be faced with several solutions, the most important of which is relying on planting drought-tolerant trees and plants. However, how to plan and select trees and plants to achieve desired goals is an important policy-making problem. This study evaluates four categories, and each category consists of a group of trees and plants that can be planted through a case study in the New Administrative Capital, Egypt. A hybrid fuzzy approach was introduced in which participants could use verbal expressions to express their opinions in decision-making to determine criteria that influence the selection of plants and trees. Many criteria must be taken into consideration in the evaluation process, including economic importance, societal importance, environmental importance, soil strategies, disease and pest resistance, and water-saving. Hence, this study uses a fuzzy hybrid multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach that considers many incompatible criteria. At first, the Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP) method was applied to estimate the relative importance of the six selected criteria. Then, the Fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (FTOPSIS) method was applied to arrange the trees and plants of the four selected categories. Sensitivity analysis was carried out to validate the validity and stability of the hybrid fuzzy approach through the change in the weights of the criteria. The results of this paper provide a practical reference for optimizing afforestation and selecting suitable trees and plants to achieve a profitable pattern through economic, societal, and environmental aspects in new cities and dry areas.