Multi-criteria Analysis Techniques Research Articles

Assessment of spatial cyclone surge susceptibility through GIS-based AHP multi-criteria analysis and frequency ratio: a case study from the Bangladesh coast

Tropical cyclones, including surge inundation, are a common event in the coastal regions of Bangladesh. The surge washes out the area within a very short period and remains in flooded condition for several days. Spatial analysis to understand the surge susceptibility level can assist the cyclone management system. Surge susceptibility analysis could be one of the most essential parts of disaster risk reduction through which cyclone vulnerability can be minimized. A Geographic Information Systems-based analytical hierarchy process (AHP) multi-criteria analysis and bivariate frequency ratio (FR) techniques were conducted to understand the surge susceptibility level of a cyclone-prone area on the Bangladesh coast. A total of 10 criteria were considered influential to surge flooding, i.e. Topographic Wetness Index, elevation, wind velocity, slope, distance from sea and rivers, drainage density, Land Use and Land Cover, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, precipitation, and soil types. The final surge susceptibility maps were categorized into five classes, i.e. very low, low, moderate, high, and very high. Conferring to these susceptibility classes, policymakers can make decisions for future land use management and disaster risk reduction activities. According to this research, AHP showed better precision (Receiver Operating Characteristic) than FR for surge susceptibility prediction on the Bangladesh coast.

Resilience Assessment and Enhancement Strategies for Urban Transportation Infrastructure to Cope with Extreme Rainfalls

As climate change intensifies, urban transportation infrastructure faces unprecedented challenges from extreme weather events, such as floods. This study investigates the resilience and vulnerability of such infrastructure under extreme rainfall conditions in Changchun City. Utilizing Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Analysis (MCDM) and Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques, we comprehensively assess the physical, functional, and service vulnerabilities of the transportation network. Our analysis reveals that only 3.57% of the area is classified as highly resilient, demonstrating effective flood management capabilities. In contrast, a significant 61.73% of the area exhibits very low resilience, highlighting substantial vulnerabilities that could impact urban operations. Based on our findings, we propose specific strategies to enhance resilience, including optimizing drainage systems, upgrading infrastructure standards, implementing green infrastructure initiatives, and integrating disaster risk factors into urban planning. These strategies and insights provide valuable references for global cities facing similar climatic challenges.

Multi-Criteria Analysis Techniques to Assist Decision-Making in Renewable Energy Supply Chains: A Review

Multi-Criteria Analysis Techniques to Assist Decision-Making in Renewable Energy Supply Chains: A Review

Implementation of Digital Competency-building Strategy in Management Education

This article uses a case study method to explore implementing an organisation’s digital competency-building strategy. The research examines the organisation’s context, including its size, industry and current digital landscape, to comprehensively understand its challenges and opportunities in developing digital competencies. Through qualitative data collection techniques such as interviews, surveys and observations, the research uncovers the specific strategies employed by the organisation to build digital competencies. These strategies may include training programmes, mentorship initiatives, online learning platforms and other relevant interventions. Additionally, the research explores the factors that influence the success or failure of these strategies, such as leadership support, organisational culture and employee engagement. This study used the multi-criteria decision-making analysis technique VIKOR to prioritise these factors and provide a prescriptive approach for digital competency building in a business programme to remove subjectivity and bias. Findings indicate that the digital competency-building initiative, including improved employee performance, enhanced digital literacy and increased innovation, is analysed to gauge the overall impact on the organisation’s success. Ultimately, this research aims to inform organisations about the importance of digital competency building and provide guidance on effective strategies for implementation. The case study approach allows for a deep exploration of the contextual factors and provides actionable recommendations for organisations looking to enhance their digital capabilities. By aligning their workforce’s skills with the demands of the digital age, organisations can better position themselves for success in an increasingly digitalised world.

Landslide susceptibility assessment along the Red Sea Coast in Egypt, based on multi-criteria spatial analysis and GIS techniques

The Egyptian Red Sea coast, a mountainous coastal region, is periodically exposed to landslide that cause severe man and economic losses. That is due to its geological, hydrogeomorphological, and seismological nature. This research aims to map landslide susceptibility in the study area using a multi-criteria overlay analysis approach. Slopes, elevations, aspects, curvature, lineaments, faults, earthquakes, rainfall, stream network, and rock units are the factors used to derive the landslide's susceptibility map. The data were obtained from research organizations and open-source geospatial platforms. The landslide susceptibility map of the area under investigation ranges from low to high as follows: 1) low (23 %), 2) moderate (43 %), and 3) high (34 %) from total area. The used model is validated using direct field check and statistical analysis by Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve test 40 landslides events. Based on ROC, the multi-criteria overlay analysis approach can predict landslides by 82 % at a 95 % confidence level. The leading causes of landslides are geological, topographical, hydrogeomorphological, and seismological. For long-term development, the study's findings would assist decision-makers in lowering the risks connected with landslides in the areas. To reduce the chance of landslides, the study recommended it is important to take into account the rugged topography of zones where landslides are likely to occur and implement rockfall protection systems like barriers, embankments, or mesh.

Combination of Multi-Objective Optimization on the basis of Ratio Analysis (MOORA) and Pivot Pairwise Relative Criteria Importance Assessment (PIPRECIA) in Determining the Best Cashier

MOORA (Multi-Objective Optimization by Ratio Analysis) method is one of the multi-criteria analysis techniques used for alternative selection based on several different criteria or objectives. In the context of selecting the best cashier, by using the MOORA method to select cashiers based on several relevant criteria. While Pivot Pairwise Relative Criteria Importance Assessment (PIPRECIA) is a method used to assess the importance of criteria relative to each other in the context of multi-criteria analysis. This method helps in determining the weight of criteria used in multi-criteria decision making. The combination of MOORA and PIPRECIA will produce the best cashier selection based on the criteria used. The results of the best cashier assessment ranking using the Multi-Objective Optimization method on the basis of Ratio Analysis (MOORA) and the Simplified Pivot Pairwise Relative Criteria Importance Assessment weighting method obtained results, namely for Rank 1 obtained by Rini Maya with a final value of 0.343.

The Role of Environmental Communication in Advancing Sustainability in Fisheries and Aquaculture: A Case Study of Latvia

Latvia has abundant water resources, but the aquaculture sector has been slow to adopt technological advances and innovations. To address this gap, the Latvian Aquaculture Development Plan for 2021–2027 aims to improve the competitiveness and sustainability of the sector. An essential component of this effort is the establishment of effective communication channels that bridge the knowledge gap between the general public, industry professionals and researchers. To promote consumer interest in sustainable aquaculture products, an environmental communication framework to assess their sustainability was used. This assessment utilised a multi-criteria analysis technique complemented by an online survey to formulate an effective communication strategy. According to the multi-criteria analysis, canned fish emerges as the most sustainable product, while fish oil, fish meal and spirulina show promise. The online survey identifies the most appropriate communication channels: social media, audio and video. To facilitate engagement and information sharing, we advocate for the practice of communication, which can effectively facilitate the sustainable use of biological resources and serve as a channel for knowledge sharing.

Identifying potential sites for rainwater harvesting ponds (embung) in Indonesia's semi-arid region using GIS-based MCA techniques and satellite rainfall data.

People have used rainwater harvesting (RWH) technology for generations to a considerable extent in semi-arid and arid regions. In addition to meeting domestic needs, this technology can be utilized for agricultural purposes as well as soil and water conservation measures. Modeling the identification of the appropriate pond's location therefore becomes crucial. This study employs a Geo Information System (GIS) based multi-criteria analysis (MCA) approach and satellite rainfall data, Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation (GSMaP) to determine the suitable locations for the ponds in a semi-arid area of Indonesia, Liliba watershed, Timor. The criteria for determining the location of the reservoir refer to the FAO and Indonesia's small ponds guideline. The watershed's biophysical characteristics and the socioeconomic situation were taken into consideration when selecting the site. According our statistical analysis, the correlation coefficient results of satellite daily precipitation were weak and moderate, but the results were strong and extremely strong for longer time scales (monthly). Our analysis shows that about 13% of the entire stream system is not suitable for ponds, whereas areas that are both good suitability and excellent suitability for ponds make up 24% and 3% of the total stream system. 61% of the locations are partially suited. The results are then verified against simple field observations. Our analysis suggests that there are 13 locations suitable for pond construction. The combination of geospatial data, GIS, a multi-criteria analysis, and a field survey proved effective for the RWH site selection in a semi-arid region with limited data, especially on the first and second order streams.

Maximizing Energy Performance of University Campus Buildings through BIM Software and Multicriteria Optimization Methods

University buildings have high energy requirements due to their size, numerous users, and activities, which considerably contribute to environmental contamination. Implementing energy-saving solutions in these structures has a favorable influence on the economics and the conservation of energy resources. A higher education building’s energy behavior can be simulated using software to identify the optimal strategies that result in energy savings. In this research, Autodesk Revit, Autodesk Insight, and Green Building Studio are among the programs utilized to examine the energy efficiency of the university building in four European cities. Following the development of several energy-saving scenarios for the building, the offered solutions are evaluated based on their annual energy consumption, energy costs, and CO2 emissions. Finally, multicriteria analysis techniques such as the AHP and PROMETHEE are applied to choose the best scenario for each instance. The study’s findings indicate that the ASHRAE Terminal Package Heat Pump scenario performed well in all of the cities examined, reducing yearly energy usage by 43.75% in Wien and annual energy costs by 47.31% in Mallorca. In comparison, the scenario utilizing a high-efficiency VAV system with a gas boiler and chiller came in last in all situations, resulting in a decrease of 12.67% in Mallorca’s annual energy usage and a reduction of 17.57% in Palermo’s annual energy expenses.

Socio-Economic Assessment of Ecosystem-Based and Other Adaptation Strategies in Coastal Areas: A Systematic Review

Coastal areas are highly vulnerable to climate-change hazards (e.g., sea-level rise, flooding, coastal erosion), which can lead to significant impacts at the ecosystem and societal level. Interest in ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) is gaining importance due to its potential multiple benefits, including social and environmental aspects, when compared to more traditional approaches such as hard engineering interventions. When assessing EbA strategies, further understanding of the nature–society functions, processes, values, and benefits is needed to increase its application. This study contributes to better knowledge of EbA and other adaptation strategies by developing a systematic literature review of studies performing socio-economic assessments of climate-change adaptation in coastal areas. The analysis of 54 publications revealed that cost–benefit analysis was applied in most studies, followed by multi-criteria analysis and other techniques. Hybrid adaptation strategies based on different combinations of hard, soft, and EbA interventions were considered as potential optimal solutions in a significant part of the assessments. This study shows some potential co-benefits of EbA, such as livelihood diversification or biodiversity conservation, but also stresses the need for further research on this topic, as well as on evaluating how EbA performs in the long term under changing climate-condition scenarios.

Performance measurement of a Resilient-Sustainable Supply Chain through fuzzy multi-criteria techniques

New trends and approaches related to environmental protection and social welfare; changes have been implemented that adapt supply chains (SC) to meet the requirements of modern production processes. On the other hand, there is a lack of proposals that integrate the sustainability and resilience approaches in the measurement of performance in supply chains despite being two elements widely studied separately. In the literature, no studies have been found that define the impact that resilience and sustainability have together on the performance of the supply chain, this being a limitation for decision makers to establish strategies that positively impact resilient-sustainable supply chains (RSSC). Therefore, the proposal of this work is focused on developing a method that combines multicriteria analysis techniques with fuzzy logic that determines the levels of performance in resilient-sustainable supply chains. The state of the art in terms of resilience and sustainability in supply chains was analyzed, which led to the definition of performance criteria in RSSC, continuing with the definition of the relationship of these performance elements through the tool known as DEMATEL. Then, the use of the “analytical network process” method is proposed, which determines the weighting of each selected performance criterion. The results show that the social dimension is the most influential and important within this framework. Working conditions and social responsibility have the greatest influence on the SCP. This study established the main attributes of the SC that decision makers should consider when designing and planning a resilient and sustainable network, as well as their influence relationships in the SCP.

Water Harvesting in the Garmian Region (Kurdistan, Iraq) Using GIS and Remote Sensing

Rainwater harvesting (RWH) is one of the essential alternative sources of water that may be used. However, finding potential RWH locations on a broad scale has always been challenging, requiring further research. The effectiveness of RWH structures depends on their design and the selection of suitable sites. This study aimed to select potential sites for rainwater harvesting in the Garmian region of Kurdistan-Iraq, using GIS and Remote Sensing (RS) techniques. Two multicriteria analysis (MCA) techniques: the analytical hierarchal process (AHP) and Fuzzy analytical hierarchal process (FAHP) were used for comparison purposes to identify potential RWH sites. A suitability map of potential RWH systems was then generated following the weighted linear combination (WLC) and the Fuzzy Gamma methods. The outcomes showed that, unlike most recent studies, which relied on the minimum and maximum local rainfall values, a minimum agreed-upon rainfall depth should be used as a benchmark when classifying rainfall to obtain realistic results. The findings also showed that 9.7%, 43.4%, 33.6%, and 13.3% of the sites have very high, high, moderate, and low suitability for rainwater harvesting, respectively, depending on the suitability map produced by the WLC method. However, the outcome of the Fuzzy Gamma technique appeared more realistic and revealed that 10.6%, 15.6%, 26.6%, 21.9%, and 25.3% of the sites have very high, high, moderate, low, and very low appropriateness for rainwater harvesting, respectively. The methods adopted in this study can be helpful for researchers in the field of RWH to achieve reliable results. Also, this study’s findings can assist in well-organized water resource management planning to ensure sustainable water development in the Garmian region.

Suitability and Sustainability Assessment of Existing Onshore Wind Farms in Greece

Site selection for wind farm projects is a vital issue that should be considered in spatial energy planning. This study explores the deployment of onshore wind farms (OWFs) in Greece and assesses their suitability and sustainability using geographic information systems and multicriteria analysis techniques (the analytical hierarchy process—AHP and Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution—TOPSIS). Their suitability is assessed in terms of seven exclusion criteria and constraints provided in the Specific Framework for Spatial Planning and Sustainable Development for Renewable Energy Sources (SFSPSD-RES), while their sustainability is assessed in terms of nine environmental, technical-economic, and social assessment criteria in five different scenarios. The obtained results indicated that 81.4% of the existing wind farms are included within suitable areas and the highest percentage of improper siting refers to the installation of wind farms in sites that are within the boundaries of the Natura 2000 protected areas. The existing wind farms located in a part of Peloponnese, at the point bordering the Administrative Region (AR) of Attica, are characterized as more ideal in four out of five of the examined scenarios in the sustainability assessment. The proposed framework of this study is practical and effective in assessing the suitability and sustainability of existing wind farms in a country, and could contribute to spatial energy planning.

WRF Physics Ensemble Performance Evaluation over Continental and Coastal Regions in Germany

WRF is used to simulate eight extreme precipitation events that occurred over the regions of Schleswig–Holstein and Baden–Wurttemberg in Germany. The events were chosen from the German Weather Service (DWD) catalog and exceeded the DWD’s warning level 3 (i.e., rainfall > 40 mm/h). A two-way nesting approach is used with 9 and 3 km spatial resolutions. Initial and boundary conditions are obtained from the ERA5 dataset at 0.25° × 0.25°. To model each event, thirty different parameterization configurations were used, accounting for all possible combinations of five microphysics (MP), three cumulus (CU), and two planetary boundary layer (PBL) parameterization methods, yielding a total of 240 simulations. TOPSIS multicriteria analysis technique is employed to determine the performance skill of each setup and rank them, using six categorical and five statistical metrics. Resolution increase from 9 to 3 km did not improve forecasting accuracy temporally or in intensity. According to TOPSIS ranking, when treating each event individually, the ideal parameterizations combination is spatiotemporally dependent, with certain members ranking higher. When all events are considered, the Morrison double-moment MP–Grell–Freitas CU–YSU PBL combination works best with a frequency of occurrence in the top five performing scenarios of 30%, 47.5%, and 57.5% respectively.

Joint venture wildlife management of the Loliondo Game Controlled Area in Tanzania: a multi-criteria analysis

ABSTRACT This study focuses on wildlife management in the Loliondo Game Controlled Area (LGCA) in the northern region of Tanzania. There are ongoing concerns surrounding wildlife management in the LGCA including an acute lack of community involvement in the wildlife management planning and decision-making process, poorly defined property rights, and the unequitable distribution of the economic benefits generated from the ecotourism and trophy hunting schemes being implemented. Employing multi-criteria analysis techniques, this study explores and evaluates the alternative wildlife management options for the wildlife tourism site at issue. The joint venture wildlife management option has been identified as the most preferable. Under a joint venture wildlife management scheme, trophy hunting and ecotourism is allowed in the area designated for conservation, while livestock grazing, agriculture, and village settlements are permitted in the remaining area of the LGCA. Under this scheme, a community-based organization (CBO) is granted user rights to wildlife and other natural resources in the conservation area. A joint venture programme is established between commercial investors and a CBO. The study argues that joint venture wildlife management should be introduced to ensure well-defined property rights, implement efficient wildlife conservation, and the equitable share of economic benefits across the various stakeholders.

Potencial productivo agrícola y modelación del cambio climático en la cuenca del Papaloapan

The objective of this work was to make a proposal for potential land use and the projection of climate change scenarios in the Papaloapan basin, using the multi-criteria and multi-objective analysis technique to generate potential capabilities in the basin. From the greatest aptitude, the scenarios were generated using the methodology for Maximum Entropy. The hydrological region was delimited through cartographic material and climatic information was obtained from meteorological stations, geographic information and databases were collected from official secondary sources, the information was processed in the ArcGIS version 10.2.2 program, to obtain the geodatabases and geospatial matrices that served as cartographic input for the multi-criteria analysis. Based on the geospatial matrices and vector data, raster data were generated, which were used in the modeling with geo-statistical algorithms and potential zones were identified from a structured language. The result of the modeling regarding the suitability of the soil generated two classes with six levels of suitability: land for basic crops and for the cultivation of species of industrial importance and two climate change scenarios, current and future.

Where and why to conserve grasslands socio-ecosystems? A spatially explicit participative approach

Grasslands of southern South America are being replaced by annual crops and forest plantations. The environmental and social consequences of this expansion generate the need for its regulation. If a conservation policy were established, it would be critical to define which areas would have priority for conservation. Multi-criteria analysis techniques are useful tools in territorial planning processes since they allow incorporating diverse and even opposing opinions and objectives. We present a methodological approach to define the Grasslands’ Conservation Value (GCV) from a spatially explicit territorial diagnosis, based on multiple criteria and incorporating explicitly and quantitatively the valuations and opinions of stakeholders. The study was developed as part of the strategy of a public inter-institutional entity to contribute in defining grasslands conservation policies. The methodological approach included workshops in which the definitions of the conservation criteria and their weighting were agreed upon. Definitions were based on a multidimensional technical characterization of the territory through indicators, for which the information used was compiled, analyzed, shared, and synthesized. Based on multi-criteria analysis, each of 12 stakeholders’ groups representatives established the individual weighting of the criteria for determining the GCV and then, established a consensus weighting. The GCV was mapped by integrating territorial diagnosis of these criteria with the weightings carried out by the stakeholders. The degree of agreement among stakeholders in the differential valuation of the ecological criteria was high for 8 of the 12 stakeholders (Pearson’s correlation coefficients >0.92), showing a high agreement between their opinions and those resulting from the group consensus. In all cases, the agreement about the spatial variation of conservation value was higher than on the criteria weights (Pearson’s correlation coefficients ≥0.92 for 10 stakeholders). Furthermore, the sites with lower values in the consensus map corresponded mostly to those sites with lower agreement among stakeholders. The proposed methodology allowed the incorporation of different perceptions not only in the definition of conservation criteria but also in their prioritization, in a transparent and auditable process. This could contribute to the implementation of future regulations that restrict the replacement of grasslands, increasing the legitimacy of territorial planning processes.

Flood hazard zone mapping incorporating geographic information system (GIS) and multi-criteria analysis (MCA) techniques

Flood is one of the most common natural disasters worldwide and has caused serious harm to humans, socio-economy and the environment. Identification and classification of flood hazard areas is therefore essential for flood management and risk decision-making which attempt to combat this challenge. This study selected eleven flood hazard conditioning factors as evaluation criteria, integrated geographic information system (GIS) with three multi-criteria analysis (MCA) techniques, viz. the analytical hierarchy process (AHP), technique ordered preference by similarity to the ideal solution (TOPSIS), and ordered weighted averaging (OWA), to form a GIS-MCA framework for analyzing the spatial distribution of flood-prone areas. Its application in the Dadu River basin, China derived a total of eleven flood hazard maps across the basin, and their analysis and comparison results demonstrated the spatial distributions of flood-prone areas based on various GIS-MCA approaches and their overlap situations, and indicated that hazard class distribution patterns of the AHP, TOPSIS, and OWA (α = 1) maps are similar, and Luding, Yuexi and their nearby areas are the highest hazard zones, where should be concerned on firstly under the condition of limited resources. To validate the three MCA methods, the AHP, TOPSIS, and OWA (α = 1) maps were compared with the historical flood disaster ranges. The verification results exhibited that the largest proportion of historical flood disaster ranges fell into the high and highest hazard levels in the three maps, and shown the resultant flood hazard maps are scientific, rational and consistent with the actual situation. The GIS-MCA approach is a powerful and feasible guidance tool for conducting flood disaster management studies, and a reference for future more efficient flood management and risk decision-making in the basin.

Re-Thinking Detroit: A Multicriteria-Based Approach for Adaptive Reuse for the Corktown District

The paper addresses the paradigm of adaptive reuse with a specific focus on issues related to the evaluation and the decision-making processes in this context. In more detail, this paper aims at recognising the main gaps that concern the evaluation process associated with adaptive reuse and providing some points of reflection and a preliminary methodological proposal to evaluate transformation scenarios related to adaptive reuse, through a multidimensional and multi-objective perspective. According to these purposes, this paper describes the implementation of the pillars of adaptive reuse to re-think the Corktown District of the city of Detroit, underlying through a real case study the complexity, the multidimensionality, and the multi-objective challenges of this concept, when implemented in urban planning and the revitalization of historic buildings. According to this scenario, the present paper focuses on issues related to managing the complexity and the multidimensionality of the decision process, under the analysis and evaluation of alternative adaptive-reuse strategies. This research, thus, proposes the application of the Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) technique, based on the Multi-Attribute Value Theory (MAVT), to evaluate and compare different strategic scenarios to re-think the Corktown District of the city of Detroit, according to the principles of adaptive reuse. The final result is a multidimensional evaluation that provides a final ranking of the different proposed alternatives, in order to support the decision-making to select the most suitable transformative scenario, according to the initial purposes of the project.

Integration of GIS-based Multi-criteria Analysis Techniques for the Delineation of Groundwater Potential Zones in Oyo state, Nigeria using Bayes’ Approach

Groundwater is the world’s most extracted raw material due to its incessant need for human consumption. This study was carried out to delineate groundwater potential zones in Oyo state, Nigeria using the integration of two GIS-based multi-criteria analysis techniques – Multi influencing factor (MIF) and Analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The Bayes’ integration approach for the recalculation of criteria weights was used. Eight groundwater potential contributing factors such as land cover, drainage density, lineament density, soil texture, geology, geomorphology, slope, and rainfall were processed and the multi-criteria analysis techniques were employed in assigning weights to each thematic layer and sub-classes. The thematic layers were overlaid in ArcGIS 10.4 software environment using the groundwater potential index equation for the generation of groundwater potential maps. The criteria weights of the MIF and AHP techniques were further integrated using Bayes’ approach to obtain an optimum groundwater potential map. In this study, the groundwater potential maps from the three techniques were validated using the Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) curve methods. The validation of the groundwater potential zonation maps from the MIF, AHP and the Bayes’ integration was also executed by evaluating the depths and yields from 1425 boreholes distributed across the study area. The Bayes’ approach shows that the groundwater percentage distributions within the study area are: very low (36%), low (34%), Moderate (14%) and high (16%). The maximum yields of 200m3 were observed in Akinyele, Atisbo and Egbeda LGA with minimum borehole depths of 24.20m, 30.30m and 30.00m. The Area under the Curve (AUC) results are: MIF (69.4%), Bayes’ (69.0%) and AHP (67.6%) respectively. The Bayes’ integration approach further shows better consistency as the average borehole yields across the groundwater potential zones positively correlates i.e. high potential zone has the highest average borehole yield, followed by the moderate, low and very low.