Use of Swot and Analytic Hierarchy Process Integration as a Participatory Decision Making Tool in Watershed Management

Abstract

The most critical issue of the decision making process in watershed management is the active involvement of a range of stakeholder groups whose views usually conflict with each other. Participatory approaches must fully respect the knowledge, experiences, values, and interests of various stakeholders. This study addresses the Beyşehir Lake Basin, the largest freshwater lake in Turkey, and focuses on inhabitants’ perceptions and approaches in order to find out the optimal watershed management strategies. The study illustrates the feasibility of SWOT analysis and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) integration to incorporate stakeholder preferences in the decision making process. The results provide the following crucial information: (i) the main problems of the basin (ii) the most important advantages of the basin in terms of ‘Strengths’ and ‘Opportunities’ (iii) the most important disadvantages of the basin in terms of ‘Weaknesses’ and ‘Threats’ (iv) the most appropriate watershed management strategies those enable ecological and socio-cultural sustainability of the basin.