Application of VIKOR and fuzzy AHP for conservation priority assessment in coastal areas: Case of Khuzestan district, Iran

• Evaluation of coastal sustainability needs critical criteria both qualitative and quantitative.
• Integrated VIKOR-FAHP is a useful method for priority assessment in coastal areas.
• Integration of social, economic and environmental criteria is essential coastal land use development.

The evaluation of sustainability in coastal lands needs some critical criteria and indicators. These criteria include both qualitative and quantitative data. To make a selection among criteria and alternatives for coastal land-use development, there is a need for Multi Criteria Analysis methods (MCDM). In this study, an integrated VIKOR-Fuzzy AHP method has been applied to make a selection among criteria and alternatives for conservation development in a coastal area. Using fuzzy AHP, one of the main weaknesses of AHP in the pair-wise comparison process can be improved. A range of values was used instead of a crisp value. This paper presents an innovative, reliable method for the identification of the most important criteria and alternatives using fuzzy AHP-VIKOR. To determine the weights of the criteria, a fuzzy pairwise comparison using the AHP method based on expert opinions in different disciplines was applied in this study. The first section of this paper is devoted to understanding sustainable coastal land use planning, along with the decision making process and its complexity and to defining the objectives. Literature about frequently used MCDM techniques in different studies is briefly summarized in this section. In Section 2, a modified fuzzy VIKOR methodology is presented. It describes the definition of criteria, the means used to gather information, the study area and the procedure that is applied in the fuzzy AHP-VIKOR technique. Additionally, this section shows how a fuzzy AHP can be jointly used with VIKOR for a priority assessment of different alternatives for conservation. Section 3 includes detailed analyses. Based on 17 criteria and 6 alternatives, it was found that Musa Estuary, one of the largest estuaries in the Persian Gulf and located in the northeast of the Persian Gulf, is the most appropriate zone for conservation. Section 4 presents a discussion of the results, and the final section is devoted to conclusions regarding these findings. Based on these findings, the integration of social, economic and environmental criteria within a planning framework using fuzzy MCDM techniques has provided a holistic approach for integrated coastal land-use development.