Multi-criteria Assessment Tool Research Articles

Do organic farming initiatives in Sub-Saharan Africa improve the sustainability of smallholder farmers? Evidence from five case studies in Ghana and Kenya

Organic agriculture (OA) is often regarded as a sustainable agricultural pathway for smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa, and an increasing number of initiatives promoting OA were initiated over the last decades. However, holistic empirical evidence on the effects of such initiatives on the sustainability of smallholder farmers is still scanty. We analyzed the effects of five initiatives promoting OA on farm-level sustainability. We selected farmers exposed to the initiatives (n = 678) and control farms (n = 957) in five different case studies, two implemented in Ghana and three in Kenya. We used a farm-level multi-criteria assessment tool that evaluates to what extent the environmental, social, economic, and governance sustainability goals formulated in the FAO-SAFA Guidelines are addressed by farmers. We found that the initiatives had limited effects on reducing farmers reliance on chemical inputs use (pesticides and synthetic fertilizers) and uptake of organic or agro-ecological practices. Nevertheless, the results show that the initiatives were able to trigger significant (p-value < 0.05) positive effects mainly for the environmental sustainability goals. In contrast, the goals within the economic, social and good governance sustainability dimensions were rarely affected. Moreover, certified initiatives had more frequently a positive sustainability effect compared to uncertified initiatives.

Testing of a Multiple Criteria Assessment Tool for Healthcare Facilities Quality and Sustainability: The Case of German Hospitals

Background: Hospital facilities are an essential part of healthcare systems, making the assessment of their quality and sustainability pivotal. Most existing evaluation tools lack a holistic and validated approach, while predominantly excluding the built environment. The Italian hospital evaluation tool SustHealth v2 addresses the shortcoming of existing applications through its structured and more integrated approach; there is the need for further testing it. Methods: The study aims to test for the first time in an international case study the multicriteria assessment tool previously developed and validated. The tool assesses social, environmental, and organisational qualities in hospitals with an online survey containing 199 closed questions sent to German hospitals. A total of 14 full replies have been collected and the resulting data analysed through descriptive statistics and heat maps identifying patterns in ownership and size. Results: Within the sample, higher scores are reported in Social Quality, while lower in Environmental and Organisational Quality. Respondents performed well in the sustainability dimensions of health promotion, waste management, and patient safety. Improvements can be achieved in energy management, facility management, and technological innovation criteria. Private hospitals slightly outperform both public and non-profit clinics. The findings presented in this study suggest a non-linear relationship between sustainability and hospital size since the highest scores were obtained by either small or large facilities. Conclusion: The study highlighted strengths and limitation of SustHealth v2. Further testing and comparison are encouraged in different context.

Weighting Key Performance Indicators of Smart Local Energy Systems: A Discrete Choice Experiment

The development of Smart Local Energy Systems (SLES) in the UK is part of the energy transition tackling the energy trilemma and contributing to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Project developers and other stakeholders need to independently assess the performance of these systems: how well they meet their aims to successfully deliver multiple benefits and objectives. This article describes a step undertaken by the EnergyREV Research Consortium in developing a standardised Multi-Criteria Assessment (MCA) tool—specifically a discrete choice experiment (DCE) to determine the weighting of key performance indicators (KPIs). The MCA tool will use a technology-agnostic framework to assess SLES projects, track system performance and monitor benefit realisation. In order to understand the perceived relative importance of KPIs across different stakeholders, seven DCEs were conducted via online surveys (using 1000minds software). The main survey (with 234 responses) revealed that Environment was considered the most important criterion, with a mean weight of 21.6%. This was followed by People and Living (18.9%), Technical Performance (17.8%) and Data Management (14.7%), with Business and Economics and Governance ranked the least important (13.9% and 13.1%, respectively). These results are applied as weightings to calculate overall scores in the EnergyREV MCA-SLES tool.

GEOTOURISM CURRENT STATE AND FUTURE PROSPECTS: A CASE STUDY IN THE CAO BANG UNESCO GLOBAL GEOPARK, VIETNAM

Cao Bang Geopark is one of three UNESCO heritage sites in Vietnam, with unique geological, landscape and cultural properties of high value to tourism. This study aims to provide a better understanding of the potential for geotourism development in Cao Bang Global Geopark, thereby proposing reasonable development strategies in the future. The research using the multi-criteria assessment and SWOT analysis tool found that Cao Bang Global Geopark has a high ability to attract tourists and exploit large tourism resources globally. However, the infrastructure, technical facilities, human resources and investment capital for geotourism are still limited and need to be improved. The research results can be considered useful references for academia and managers in finding strategies and solutions for sustainable geotourism development at Cao Bang Geopark in the future.

Integrative Sustainability Analysis of European Pig Farms: Development of a Multi-Criteria Assessment Tool

Societal interest in all aspects of sustainability has increased. Therefore, pig farmers need to be aware of their strengths and weaknesses in all dimensions of sustainability: economy, environment, social wellbeing, and animal health and welfare. Our aim was to describe and critically discuss the development of a sustainability assessment tool for pig farms and to evaluate its suitability by applying it to 63 European pig farms (13 breeding, 27 breeding-to-finishing, and 23 finishing farms). The multi-criteria assessment tool was developed in several steps (the selection and scaling of indicators and their aggregation and weighting) in order to summarise the indicators into subtheme and theme scores. The indicators contributing the most to the subtheme/theme scores were identified and discussed in order to evaluate the procedure of the development. For example, some indicators, such as Ecological compensation area, Fairness of prices, and Tail docking, for which farms were scored low, were also identified as “real world problems” in other studies. For other sustainability aspects with low performance, the threshold might have been set too ambitiously, e.g., for Number of sows per annual working unit. Furthermore, to analyse the suitability of the tool, we assessed the best and worst median theme scores (good and poor performances) for each dimension, as well as the variability of the performances of the farms within the themes. Some themes were found to be moderate, such as Pig comfort, Biodiversity, or Resilience, whereas others were found to be good, e.g., Water and the Human–animal relationship, as well as several themes of the social wellbeing dimension. Overall, the sustainability tool provides a comprehensive assessment of the sustainability of pig production. Furthermore, this publication contributes to both the theory (development of a robust sustainability tool) and the practice (provision of a tool to assess and benchmark the sustainability on farms). As a next step, a sensitivity analysis should be performed, and the tool should be applied for further development.

Multi-criteria Assessment of Onsite Packaged Wastewater Treatment Systems

Onsite wastewater treatment systems and small scale packaged wastewater treatment plants have been used on a large scale in developing and developed countries where centralized sewerage facilities are not feasible. Generally, onsite systems continuously work under significant variations in both quantity and quality of the influent wastewater. Therefore, their suitability needs to be assessed before installation and operation to ensure their suitability and sustainability. This paper aims to define a set of context-specific criteria to assist in selecting the best onsite wastewater treatment system and to break down these criteria into measurable parameters. Furthermore, the developed multi-criteria assessment tool was validated using the results of the performance monitoring of a selected wastewater treatment system. This work is important since the selection of onsite systems, in many cases, is done based on declared performance by the supplier and the costs involved.

Prioritising Lean, Agile, Resilient and Green Supply Chain Practices: An Application of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) in FMCG sector of Pakistan

This study prioritises the lean, agile, resilient and green (LARG) supplychain practices in Pakistan’s FMCG sector. This study utilises theAHP methodology to rank the different LARG practices in Pakistan’sFMCG sector. The primary purpose of this analytical study is torecognise and prioritise the usage of these practices to develop theLARG paradigm in the FMCG sector. In this study, various methodshave been identified with the help of extensive literature review and discussion with subject matter experts. The results demonstrate that anorganisational structure (infrastructure) that can deal with disruption isone of the most critical practices among all LARG practices. The result also indicates that firms should establish resilience in their supply chainnetwork, and described as the most vital supply chain phenomenonamong the LARG category. The study findings provide the directionto the supply chain professional as to which practices are critical forestablishing the LARG system in the organisation. Prioritising LARGpractices is scant in literature; hence, this study contributes. Also, other recent multi-criteria assessment tools may be used for significantcontributions in the future.

RATING ASSESSMENT IN MAKING FINANCIAL DECISIONS BY METHODS OF MULTI-CRITERIA ANALYSIS

The article attempts to reveal the problems of decision support processes by consumers of banking services. Choosing the best financial strategy always requires significant mathematical tools. The comparison of methodological tools for making management decisions has allowed us to identify groups of methods. The most common among them are game theory, multidimensional ranking and multi-criteria analysis, a fairly modern method exploring alternative options using multi-objective optimization without certain shortcomings of the first two methods. The main purpose of the study is to adapt the methods of multi-criteria analysis and to form universal tools to substantiate management decisions on the optimal financial strategy.&#x0D; We suggest a methodological approach based on the use of multi-criteria assessment tools, for the rating assessment of possible alternatives in making financial decisions, namely Smart method to determine the weighting factors of the evaluation criteria and TOPSIS method to assess the optimum banking institution from the perspective of bank depositors. The article pays special attention to highlighting and describing the hierarchy of the task of choosing a depository financial institution and the main features of strategic alternatives. To assess the banks’ ratings we set up the system of generalized criteria including three groups, each of which by means of decomposition is divided into 11 partial criteria, which have monotonically increasing target functions (except for "additional associated costs"). Initial data in the form of a constructed "decision matrix" according to certain particular criteria are formed on the basis of statistical and expert information. We have chosen the end of 2020 ‒ beginning of 2021 as the research period for utilizing up-to-date information.&#x0D; The research of rating assessment in the article is carried out in the following logical sequence: analysis of existing methods of financial decision-making support and the significance of modern methods of multi-criteria analysis among them, a thorough problem statement from the perspective of the banks’ services consumers, singling out the list of alternatives and their estimation criteria, substantiating the values of the weighting coefficients of generalized and particular criteria by the SMART method, practical application of the TOPSIS method algorithm to select the best alternative and recommendations for making a financial decision. Therefore by means of mathematical calculations the article justifies the choice of the optimum strategy by a consumer of financial services of the banking institution offering the most attractive conditions for opening an account.&#x0D; Thus, the study empirically confirms and theoretically proves that the use of modern economic and mathematical methods, in particular the TOPSIS method, helps the consumer of banking services in supporting of making well-considered and optimum management decisions, taking into account the previously set evaluation criteria.

Determinants for the viability of small-scale family farms in Serbia: an example of the use of a multi-criteria assessment tool

Determinants for the viability of small-scale family farms in Serbia: an example of the use of a multi-criteria assessment tool

Multi-criteria assessment tools for achieving balance between negotiating powers under distorted conditions of competition in construction sector’s market

Research background: this study identified which factors influence other factors and how they have a greater impact on the value of a business entity’s HHI index. By knowing the key factors, they can be used to model possible mergers and their impact on the HHI index and possible changes in the market power balance. Purpose of the article: to present the concept of business negotiation system, enabling to model and effectively manage the process of development and implementation of negotiation strategies, assessing the negotiating power of negotiating parties and selecting multi-criteria assessment tools to balance them in the conditions of distorted construction sector market competition. Methods: multi-criteria assessment is used to assess the market power of business entities in business negotiations in order to select effective strategic solutions for construction sector’s business negotiations. Findings &amp; Value added: a developed algorithm for the development of construction sector’s business negotiation strategy based on evaluations of bargaining power is presented.

Factors Influencing Measure-based Adaptation of Rice Farmers for Slow-Onset Hazard: the Case of Saltwater Inundation in the Philippines and Vietnam.

This study sought to determine the factors influencing rice farmers' adaptation to a slow-onset hazard such as saltwater inundation. The research is based on a survey conducted through personal interviews using Kobotool App consisting of 326 coastal rice farmers in Northern Mindanao, the Philippines and 258 rice farmers in two provinces in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. There were four levels of analyses for the assessment of the feasibility of the adaptation measures implemented by the farmers. First, it classified adaptation measures into specific categories: technology based, farm-based crop management, ecosystem-based adaptation, off-farm income diversification, and other measures. Second, it developed a multi-criteria assessment tool on adaptation measures based on stakeholder analysis and expert judgment based on four major feasibility criteria. Third, it determined the level of adaptation based on the combination of measures and the feasibility of the chosen measures by constructing a measure-based adaptation index (MAI). Finally, it came up with a model showing the factors influencing the MAI of the farmers. The results revealed that adaptation takes place at different levels in the two countries based on the diversity of measures, the feasibility of the various measures, and the varying conditions of saltwater inundation. The empirical evidence provides systematic support for the hypothesis that adaptation measures are influenced by a confluence of social, institutional, and economic factors.

A transnational multicriteria assessment method and tool for sustainability rating of the built environment

A new open access multicriteria European built environment assessment method and tool to support the assessment, planning and decision-making process for rating the sustainability of buildings and neighbourhoods was developed in the framework of a European project – CESBA MED. It addresses the main sustainability issues for buildings and neighbourhoods (e.g. site and infrastructure, urban systems, energy and natural resources, emissions and environment, service quality, social aspects, economy), which are described and quantified with an “exhaustive” list of sustainability criteria/indicators, including a small number of mandatory key performance indicators (KPIs) that represent the priority sustainability transnational issues. Six national versions of the tools have been developed and are available in different languages, which are contextualized to national (local) priorities, and were successfully assessed during pilot projects in Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Malta and Spain. . The paper presents a short overview of the method, tools, KPIs and benchmarks, along with the main results from the pilots. The tools are envisioned to fit public administrations’ needs at a lower cost compared to other market available commercial systems and offer sufficient flexibility for adaptation to local needs and priorities.

Towards resilient cities: Advancements allowed by a multi-criteria optimization tool to face the new challenges of European Union’s climate and energy goals

The United Nations as well as the European Union are strongly committed in promoting a transition towards more sustainable and resilient cities. Indeed, they are increasingly affected by different types of threats, among which the natural ones such as earthquakes, fires, and floods (shocks) and climate variability (stresses). Cities are quite often unable to cope with the adverse effects of such natural hazards. This circumstance leads to the need of introducing resilience-related criteria (besides commonly used sustainability indicators) in decision-making processes. This paper investigates at which extent the inclusion of such new indicators, within multi-criteria assessment tools for supporting the decision-making process by Public Administrations, modifies the prioritization processes of a given set of planned actions to be implemented in cities, which are based instead on the above-cited commonly used indicators. The outcomes of the analysis demonstrated that the introduction of resilience among the prioritization criteria significantly modifies the list of priorities established using only sustainability indicators.

Prioritization of solid concentration and temperature for solid state anaerobic digestion of pearl millet straw employing multi-criteria assessment tool

India produces huge quantities of agricultural residues and stubbles and mainly disposed by burning on site causing air pollution. The organic matter present in the residues and stubble may be utilized by anaerobic digestion as a source of renewable energy subsequently reducing emission of greenhouse gases caused by burning. In the present study, solid state anaerobic digestion (SSAD) of pearl millet straw was investigated at mesophilic and thermophilic temperature with four different total solid (TS) content (15, 20, 25 and 30%). Results showed that 20 and 25% TS generated maximum methane (124.1 ± 7 and 162.4 ± 9L/kg VS) at mesophilic and thermophilic temperature respectively. However, increasing TS content beyond 25% did not show significant increment on methane yield. Analytical analysis showed correlation between the reduction of volatile solids and methane yield as well as VFA (volatile fatty acid) accumulation at high TS content. Also, VlseKriterijuska Optimizacija Komoromisno Resenje (VIKOR) and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) methods as MultiCriteria Decision Making modelling (MCDM) applied to select best possible alternative for SSAD of pearl millet. MCDM analysis showed that VIKOR method endorsed the experimental results.

Accounting for uncertainty in multi-criteria sustainability assessments at the farm level: Improving the robustness of the SMART-Farm Tool

Many farm sustainability assessments use multi-criteria methods for aggregating indicators based on performance scores and importance weights. One of these is the SMART-Farm Tool, which measures the degree of goal achievement of farms across 327 indicators nested within 4 sustainability dimensions, 21 themes and 58 sub-themes of the FAO-SAFA Guidelines (Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture). This study aims to improve the empirical foundation of the SMART-Farm Tool by (i) evaluating the uncertainty of indicator weights obtained via expert opinion and (ii) integrating this uncertainty into SMART assessment results. An adapted Delphi process was implemented, involving a group of 67 experts from 21 countries divided into thematic and regional sub-groups. Experts within each sub-group rated the importance of indicators of all 58 SAFA sub-themes, and self-assessed their own competence. Contrary to expectations, the uncertainty in expert opinions was relatively high for environmental indicator weights (although lowest for animal welfare), being comparable to social and governance indicators. Considerable uncertainty remained in indicator weights, even after two rounds of discussion and exchange of views. This is attributed to regional variation and inherent system complexity (i.e. experts having legitimate but diverging viewpoints based on contradictory evidence) rather than scientific ignorance (i.e. a lack of research evidence). Nevertheless, it is expected that the levels of uncertainty could be reduced by limiting the number of indicators to be evaluated and thus by allowing for more in-depth discussions among the experts. Monte Carlo Simulations were used to translate residual indicator weight uncertainty into SMART assessment results at the farm level for four example farms from both developed and developing countries. The resulting comparisons revealed several cases where substantial apparent differences between farms in sustainability scores for a specific sub-theme (up to 23%) were not statistically significant, while in other cases differences of 5% were significant. This emphasizes the general importance of considering uncertainty in multi-criteria assessment tools, with clear implications real-world applications, such as product certification, labelling and marketing. Finally, this study provides important methodological suggestions for implementing expert-based assessments in multi-criteria assessments efficiently.

Comparative multi-criteria performance assessment of alternative water infrastructure systems

Abstract This paper presents a new multi-criteria assessment tool enabling the comparison of conventional and innovative infrastructures and its application to a specific case in a mid-size German city, Lünen. The assessed infrastructure alternatives are a conventional system with centralised supply of drinking water, wastewater collection in a combined sewer system and central tertiary treatment in one case. In the other, more innovative system, one part of the wastewater is used decentrally to extract the contained heat, substitute one part of the drinking water and, after being passed into a park-like constructed wetland, improve the microclimate and biodiversity. The assessment method employed is utility analysis using a set of 21 criteria and 33 indicators. The comparative assessment of both infrastructure alternatives shows the superiority of the innovative system for most criteria.

Traditional formwork system sustainability performance: experts’ opinion

The traditional formwork system is one of the commonly used systems in concrete construction. It is considered as one of the least observed activities in term of sustainability performance. In this paper, the sustainability performance of the traditional formwork has been assessed by using a multi-criteria assessment tool to facilitate the decision on the sustainability performance measurement. A quantitative five Likert scale survey study using judgemental sampling is employed in this study. A sample of 93 of engineering construction experts, with different fields including contractors, developers, and consultants in the Malaysian context has made the body of the collected primary data. The results show variety in the distribution of the respondents’ working experience. The sustainability performance is considered moderately sustainable by the experts with only given 40.24 % of the overall total score for the three sustainable categories namely environmental, social and economic. Despite the finding that shows that the economic pillar was rated as the most sustainable aspect in comparison to the environmental and social pillars the traditional formwork system sustainability still needs enhancement. Further incorporation of the social and environmental pillars into the concrete construction the sustainability performance of traditional formwork system could be improved.

Multi-criteria assessment tool for sustainability appraisal of remediation alternatives for a contaminated site

In order to improve and support decision-making for the selection of remedial techniques for contaminated sites, a multi-criteria assessment (MCA) method has been developed. The MCA framework is structured in a decision process actively involving stakeholders, and compares the sustainability of remediation alternatives by integrating environmental, societal, and economic criteria in the assessment. The MCA includes five main decision criteria: remedial effect, remediation cost, remediation time, environmental impacts, and societal impacts. The main criteria are divided into a number of sub-criteria. The environmental impacts consider secondary impacts to the environment caused by remedial activities and are assessed by life-cycle assessment (LCA). The societal impacts mainly consider local impacts and are assessed in a more qualitative manner on a scale from 1 to 5. The performance on each main criterion is normalized to a score between 0 and 1, with 1 being the worst score. An overall score is obtained by calculating a weighted sum with criteria weights determined by stakeholders. The MCA method was applied to assess remediation alternatives for the Groyne 42 site, one of the largest contaminated sites in Denmark. The compared remediation alternatives for the site were: (1) excavation of the site followed by soil treatment; (2) in situ alkaline hydrolysis; (3) in situ thermal remediation; and (4) continued encapsulation of the site by sheet piling. Criteria weights were derived by a stakeholder panel. The stakeholders gave the highest weighting to the remedial effect of the methods and to the societal impacts. For the Groyne 42 case study, the excavation option obtained the lowest overall score in the MCA, and was therefore found to be the most sustainable option. This was especially due to the fact that this option obtained a high score in the main categories Effect and Social impacts, which were weighted highest by the stakeholders. The developed MCA method is structured with five main criteria. Effect and time are included in addition to the three pillars of sustainability (environment, society, and economy). The remedial effect of remediation is therefore assessed and weighted separately from the main criteria environment. This structure makes interpretation of criteria scores more transparent and emphasizes the importance of effect and time as decision parameters. This also facilitated an easier weighting procedure for the stakeholders in the case study, who expressed a wish to weigh the remedial effect independently from the secondary environmental impacts.

Ex-ante sustainability assessment of cleaner banana production systems

As one of the largest users of pesticides in the world, banana production is responsible for numerous types of pollution affecting water, soil and air and causing a variety of health issues. Agroecological innovations can help to reduce pesticide use and achieve cleaner and more sustainable banana production systems. Innovations must be well suited to the diversity of banana farms and acceptable to the stakeholders involved in production. We tested the impact of 18 agroecological innovations in Guadeloupe on the sustainability of three contrasted production systems, using the multi-criteria assessment model MASC. These innovations included different types of fallow (A), bans on pesticides (B), conditional applications of pesticides (C), intercropping (D), resistant cultivars (E), and integrated systems (F). In the assessment, we introduced the views of 29 stakeholders involved in sustainability issues relative to banana grouped through three sets of weightings, obtained by direct weighting of the indicators used in a multi-criteria assessment tool. We analysed the effects of each set of weightings on the sustainability level for these different banana production systems. Our results showed that the adoption of innovations can have negative, positive or no effects on the overall sustainability of banana production systems. Although none of the innovations had a positive effect on all cropping systems, some innovations were relevant to several farm types. However, this depended on the sets of weightings considered, because we found several types of stakeholder with opposing views on the importance of sustainability components. Integrated and organic systems produced the best results in terms of increasing sustainability and were relevant to current farming systems. However, in order to obtain cleaner banana production at the landscape scale, a combination of these innovations, tailored to the diversity of farmers' situations and stakeholder preferences, still needs to be proposed.

Quality and Safety Assurance of Iron Casts and Manufacturing Processes

Abstract The scope of this work focuses on the aspects of quality and safety assurance of the iron cast manufacturing processes. Special attention was given to the processes of quality control and after-machining of iron casts manufactured on automatic foundry lines. Due to low level of automation and huge work intensity at this stage of the process, a model area was established which underwent reorganization in accordance with the assumptions of the World Class Manufacturing (WCM). An analysis of work intensity was carried out and the costs were divided in order to identify operations with no value added, particularly at individual manufacturing departments. Also an analysis of ergonomics at work stations was carried out to eliminate activities that are uncomfortable and dangerous to the workers' health. Several solutions were proposed in terms of rationalization of work organization at iron cast after-machining work stations. The proposed solutions were assessed with the use of multi-criteria assessment tools and then the best variant was selected based on the assumed optimization criteria. The summary of the obtained results reflects benefits from implementation of the proposed solutions.