Abstract
The value of geographic research consists in its desiderata to understand, improve and protect its object of study and in its capacity to constantly expand its horizons by developing new methods or integrating the ones that are commonly used in other fields of research. The AHP is a multi-criteria decision-making method tangentially used in Geography, especially regarding risk assessments and site suitability studies. This paper aims to reveal the opportunities of using the AHP in geographic research providing a compelling example of an application of this method in a geographic context. The AHP application focuses on the deforestation problem in Romania, evaluating it in four counties (Alba, Gorj, Maramureș and Suceava) with respect to five factors – the deforested area, the deforestation rate, the regeneration works, the GDP per capita and the population density. Ensuring a better understanding of the method’s implementation, the example helps to illustrate the contribution of the AHP in solving geographic matters. The integration of the AHP as a research tool in this field is discussed in correlation with its advantages and disadvantages. The bias induced by the subjective evaluations of the decision maker is balanced by the inclusion of both quantitative and qualitative aspects and by the consistency checking mechanism. This makes the AHP a complete aggregation method that provides reliable results that can be effectively used in the pursuit of sustainable development, social innovation and increasing territorial resilience. DOI: 10.15551/lsgdc.v45i0.02
Highlights
The AHP is one of the most effective and appreciated multi-criteria decision making methods
The value of geographic research consists in its desiderata to understand, improve and protect its object of study and in its capacity to constantly expand its horizons by developing new methods or integrating the ones that are commonly used in other fields of research
The idealised form of the results indicates that Alba is affected by deforestation as much as 65.59% comparing to Gorj, while Maramureș and Suceava are affected by 41.62%, respectively 34.64% as much as the ideal alternative
Summary
The AHP is one of the most effective and appreciated multi-criteria decision making methods. Being dependent on the verity of the decision maker’s judgments, the AHP tends to be biased This drawback is balanced by the fact that the method includes both tangible and intangible aspects (Saaty, 2008) and by the previously mentioned consistency checking mechanism. The AHP is a highly intuitive method that requires medium level knowledge to interpret its results. It offers a clear view of the problem by decomposing it into subsystems that can be individually analyzed and managed. Each level may comprise both objective and subjective aspects of the decision The evaluation of these elements is made by applying the technique of pairwise comparisons. The decision maker uses a priority scale of absolute numbers (Table 1) that measures both the intangible (qualitative) and the tangible (quantitative) elements. (Saaty, 2008)
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