Using multi‐criteria decision analysis for assessing sustainability of agricultural systems

Abstract

Composite indicators for six key categories of agricultural sustainability are utilized within a Multi‐Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) structure to assess and compare the sustainability of different agricultural systems. Individual indicators – productivity, stability, efficiency, durability, compatibility and equity – were used to develop composite indicators. In this research, the major steps used to obtain the aggregated indicators and assess sustainability are: define sustainability; recognize sustainability issues; identify indicators; categorize sustainability; measure indicator values to develop composite indicators; give weighting to the categories of sustainability; aggregate composite indicators; and compare the sustainability of different agricultural systems. Using composite indicators, an MCDA structure is employed to evaluate and rank the agricultural systems of southwest coastal Bangladesh in terms of the level of agricultural sustainability of each one. The case study demonstrates that this MCDA approach has the potential to become a useful framework for agricultural sustainability assessment.

The PROMETHEE Framework for Comparing the Sustainability of Agricultural Systems

“…In this research, the PROMETHEE approach to MCDA is utilized to rank six agricultural systems in coastal Bangladesh. However, other MCDA approaches having different decision rules for ordering the alternatives according to various sustainability criteria could be used, such as the elimination method [48] and MAUT [49], which have previously been applied to the same agricultural systems studied in this paper. Moreover, other techniques for assessing the sustainability of agricultural practices could be utilized, such as in References [50][51][52][53].…”

Realizing Sustainable Development via Modified Integrated Weighting MCDM Model for Ranking Agrarian Dataset

“…Also, the weighted normalized matrix was constructed using the main weights obtained from the rank-sum method using the formula given in Equation (5). Maximizing criteria and minimizing criteria were calculated for every alternative in the decision matrix using the formula given in Equation (14) and Equation (15), which is shown in Table 18. Relative priority values of each alternative were obtained using maximizing criteria and minimizing criteria by applying the formula given in Equation (16).…”

“…Farmers face many problems, such as unexpected natural disasters, soil infertility, lack of awareness related to modern farming techniques, etc. ; several decision models have been developed so far to improve the development of sustainable agriculture [8,[12][13][14][15][16][17]. Identification of relevant parameters and the site dataset concerning agriculture problems is essential for the decision problem.…”

“…A mathematical model was built for agriculture development using the subjective weight assessment method, namely the rank-sum method and objective weight assignment method, namely the grey correlation method [15]. A multivariate application was developed using GIS for land suitability analysis by applying the MCDM method, and weights were calculated using the ranks obtained from the experts [16].…”

Towards sustainability‐oriented decision making: Model development and its validation via a comparative case study on building construction methods

“…Several issues also exist in comparing or prioritizing several alternatives for decision making, such as how to make trade‐offs among socio‐political, environmental, and economic factors and how to deal with indicators with different forms and units. Multicriteria decision‐making (MCDM) methods can be adopted to address these issues and thus provide solid and logical backbone for the model (Khoshnava et al, ; Talukder, Hipel, & vanLoon, ). Various MCDM methods have been adopted in various decision making situations, such as analytical hierarchy process (AHP; Ren, Manzardo, Mazzi, Zuliani, & Scipioni, ; Sambasivan & Fei, ; Thanki, Govindan, & Thakkar, ; Tseng, Lin, & Chiu, ), ELECTRE (Hatami‐Marbini & Tavana, ; Kaya & Kahraman, ; Wen, Yu, & Yan, ), TOPSIS (Joshi & Kumar, ; Kaya & Kahraman, ; Kluczek & Gladysz, ), and PROMETHEE (Arıkan, Şimşit‐Kalender, & Vayvay, ; Athawale & Chakraborty, ; Ren et al, ).…”