Contribution of GIS to Soil Landscape Mapping by Multi-Criteria Analysis Using Weighting: The Case of the Square Degrees of M’Bahiakro (Centre) and Daloa (Centre-West) in Ivory Coast

As part of the drive to improve coffee and cocoa production in Ivory Coast, studies are carried out to identify soils that are favourable for these crops. It is therefore necessary to orientate soil investigations based on reliable criteria that best discriminate soil cover. With this in mind, this study is being carried out to help improve survey methods by mapping soil landscapes. It uses GIS and weighted multicriteria analysis. To do this, satellite images were processed and the geological map of the square degrees of M’Bahiakro and Daloa was reclassified. The results show that relief is the main factor in soil landscape differentiation, with respective weights of 0.58 and 0.67 for the forest and pre-forest zones. In contrast, the weight of geological formation in soil landscape differentiation remains low (0.05 for the forest zone and 0.07 for the pre-forest zone). The criteria used on the base of aggregation sum methods have made it possible to formulate soil landscape mapping prediction functions according to agro-ecological environments in the humid intertropical zone. This is essential for the orientation of soil survey work. Nevertheless, other comparative methods, such as the coding mapping method, could provide elements for discussion to validate the models.

Potential landfill site selection for solid waste disposal using GIS and multi-criteria decision analysis(MCDA)

Proper solid waste disposal is an important socioeconomic concern for all developing countries.Municipalities have their own policies,individual approaches and methods to manage the solid wastes.They consider wastelands outside the urban area as the best suitable for the solid waste disposal.Such improper site selection will create morphological changes that lead to environmental hazards in the urban and its surrounding areas.In this research,the site selection for urban solid waste disposal in the Coimbatore district used geographical information system(GIS)and multi-criteria decision analysis(MCDA).Thematic layers of lineament density,landuse/landcover,population density,groundwater depth,drainage density,slope,soil texture,geology and geomorphology were considered as primary criteria and weights for criteria,and sub-criteria were assigned by MCDA analysis.The resultant weight score was validated by consistency ratio so that the efficiency of the selected criteria was justified.The overlay analysis in GIS environment provides 17 potential zones in Coimbatore district,among which,four suitable sites were screened and refined with the help of field investigation and visual interpretation of satellite image.The result of landfill suitability map shows the effectiveness of the proposed method.

GIS and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis for Land Use Resource Planning

Natural resources management is indispensable in ensuring environmental sustainability and reducing the risk associated with climate change and increasing demand for ecological goods and services. Natural resources planners need to have at their disposal tools that can objectively help in prioritizing land use allocation. Traditional application of land use change model based on economic model, trend analysis, and or scenario analysis present some challenges of data availability and reliability necessary for implementation of the models. However, with the advent of information technology, GIS and remote sensing, biophysical data known for having influence on land use allocation can easily be accessed. The current study explores the application of GIS-Multi-criteria analysis in modeling future land use scenarios for resources planning and management using easy to construct biophysical parameters known for influencing future land use allocation. The decision problems in this study are to find the best spatial allocation of land to future agriculture and forest development, which are considered to present critical land use change in the study area. The afforestation scenarios are meant to offset the pressure on the native forest resources due to the increased demand for fuel and timber and also to contribute to the environmental protection and the agricultural land use scenarios are meant to increase productivity and ensure environmental protection. The land use scenarios did not consider “when” in the future the land use pattern may develop. The analyses of scenarios indicate that afforestation extent in the basin can be increased from 4.6% to 42.9% of the total basin area. However, the afforestation extent of 42.9% may be considered unrealistic, since in practice, it may not be possible to realize up to 42.9% afforestation, nevertheless, the spatial pattern of the afforestation may provide crucial insight into spatial afforestation policies and it future consequences. The agricultural land use can increase from 6.2% to 53.7% of the basin area. The agricultural land use expansion can be realised since the expansion of farm land is primarily the main option to achieve food production increase in the near future. The findings indicate potential use of the methodology in land use planning.

Multi-Criteria Analysis Using Remote Sensing and GIS: Insight into Groundwater Potential of the Fissured Aquifers in the Liptako Socle (Southwestern Niger)

In the basement of southwestern Niger, weathering and fractured zones concentrate most of the groundwater. This study focuses on fractured media and aims to identify areas of productivity in this aquifer to improve the region’s water coverage. The cartographic approach developed made it possible to establish synthetic maps based on multi-criteria analysis. The hydrogeological parameters selected include fracturing data, drainage system, slope and piezometric level as well as shallow and deep lithology. The choice of these criteria is based on their physical meaning but also on the availability of data. The integration of all the criteria in a GIS allowed to generate maps of recharge and potential productivity of fractured aquifers in the area. The validation of these thematic maps with independent data confirms their utility as reference standards for accessibility for future resource exploitation. Like any spatialization tool, potential recharge maps will provide valuable information about areas where infiltration is more important, and help control and manage risk zoning. The upward evacuation effect is even more prominent along the lineaments, faults or fractures: thus, to avoid possible pollution and to locate the future hydraulic structures, the analysis of the potential recharge zones remains necessary. The potential productivity index map, in addition to the very punctual sites identified by the fracturing study, made it possible to define areas of high potential productivity.

Aspect based sentiment analysis using multi-criteria decision-making and deep learning under COVID-19 pandemic in India

The COVID-19 pandemic has a significant impact on the global economy and health.While the pandemic continues to cause casualties in millions,many countries have gone under lockdown.During this period,people have to stay within walls and become more addicted towards social networks.They express their emotions and sympathy via these online platforms.Thus,popular social media(Twitter and Facebook)have become rich sources of information for Opinion Mining and Sentiment Analysis on COVID-19-related issues.We have used Aspect Based Sentiment Analysis to anticipate the polarity of public opinion underlying different aspects from Twitter during lockdown and stepwise unlock phases.The goal of this study is to find the feelings of Indians about the lockdown initiative taken by the Government of India to stop the spread of Coronavirus.India-specific COVID-19 tweets have been annotated,for analysing the sentiment of common public.To classify the Twitter data set a deep learning model has been proposed which has achieved accuracies of 82.35%for Lockdown and 83.33%for Unlock data set.The suggested method outperforms many of the contemporary approaches(long shortterm memory,Bi-directional long short-term memory,Gated Recurrent Unit etc.).This study highlights the public sentiment on lockdown and stepwise unlocks,imposed by the Indian Government on various aspects during the Corona outburst.

Holistic approach of GIS based Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis(MCDA) and WetSpass models to evaluate groundwater potential in Gelana watershed of Ethiopia

Appropriate quantification and identification of the groundwater distribution in a hydrological basin may provide necessary information for effective management,planning and development of groundwater resources.Groundwater potential assessment and delineation in a highly heterogeneous environment with limited Spatiotemporal data derived from Gelana watershed of Abaya Chamo lake basin is performed,using integrated multi-criteria decision analysis(MCDA),water and energy transfer between soil and plant and atmosphere under quasi-steady state(WetSpass)models.The outputs of the WetSpass model reveal a favorable structure of water balance in the basin studied,mainly using surface runoff.The simulated total flow and groundwater recharge are validated using river measurements and estimated baseflow at two gauging stations located in the study area,which yields a good agreement.The WetSpass model effectively integrates a water balance assessment in a geographical information system(GIS)environment.The WetSpass model is shown to be computationally reputable for such a remote complex setting as the African rift,with a correlation coefficient of 0.99 and 0.99 for total flow and baseflow at a significant level of p-value<0.05,respectively.The simulated annual water budget reveals that 77.22%of annual precipitation loses through evapotranspiration,of which 16.54%is lost via surface runoff while 6.24%is recharged to the groundwater.The calibrated groundwater recharge from the WetSpass model is then considered when determining the controlling factors of groundwater occurrence and formation,together with other multi-thematic layers such as lithology,geomorphology,lineament density and drainage density.The selected five thematic layers through MCDA are incorporated by employing the analytical hierarchy process(AHP)method to identify the relative dominance in groundwater potential zoning.The weighted factors in the AHP are procedurally aggregated,based on weighted linear combinations to provide the groundwater potential index.Based on the potential indexes,the area then is demarcated into low,moderate,and high groundwater potential zones(GWPZ).The identified GWPZs are finally examined using the existing groundwater inventory data(static water level and springs)in the region.About 70.7%of groundwater inventory points are coinciding with the delineated GWPZs.The weighting comparison shows that lithology,geomorphology,and groundwater recharge appear to be the dominant factors influence on the resources potential.The assessment of groundwater potential index values identify 45.88%as high,39.38%moderate,and 14.73%as low groundwater potential zones.WetSpass model analysis is more preferable in the area like Gelana watershed when the topography is rugged,inaccessible and having limited gauging stations.

Planning of Waste Management Systems in Urban Area Using Multi-Criteria Analysis

Planning of waste management system in urban area should take into consideration many legal, technological, financial, economic, technical, ecological, social and spatial aspects. The aim of the paper is to propose the method, which can be helpful in planning procedure of waste management system in European cities or regions, which comprise with following steps: identification of produced volume and municipal solid waste characteristics in the region for providing grounds to design a technological system, identification of other financial, economic, legal, social aspects for creation of waste management scenarios, definition of the criteria allowing evaluate designed waste management scenarios based on plan requirements, make an the multi-criteria analysis for choosing the best scenario in the region. Such analyses were conducted to evaluate the proposed different waste management systems in city of Cracow in 2000, 2004 and 2007. This comparison of theses systems shows that evaluating criteria were tightened as a result of toughening regulations of both Polish and the EU laws.

The Application of Multi-Criteria Analysis to Managing Human Resources on the Local Government Level in Environment Protection

This project investigates the hypothesis for keeping the environment safe by using human resources at the local government level. Strategic decision-making in the management of human recourses in the field of environmental protection is crucial for the countries in transition. Lack of financial and technological resources can be compensated with other potentials. Therefore, it is necessary to emphasize the decision-making process. Optimization of the existing resources under real conditions is needed in order to get better results of the implementation of adopted strategies. As an example, the scheme of optimal solution based on PROMETHEE method （multi-criteria method of optimization） is given.

A Risk-Based Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis Approach to Evaluating Transboundary Water Development—The Case of Lower Mekong River Basin

The Lower Mekong River basin (LMB) covers the lower part of the Mekong river basin, including Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Due to numerous pressures from high population growth and intensive hydropower development, the LMB has been facing significant challenges concerning its biodiversity and ecosystem. In 2017, Mekong River Commission (MRC), an intergovernmental organisation founded in 1995 among LMB countries, established the Council Study, which analysed the impacts of water development scenarios concerning the environmental, socioeconomic aspects of the LMB. This paper explores the nature of risks to the LMB water development and subsequently evaluates LMB’s water development scenarios described in the Council Study by using a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) method. MCDA method has been widely applied in the field of water resource management in order to assist the decision-making process by systematically evaluating a certain number of alternatives against well-selected criteria through a preference rating scheme. By implementing a risk-based comprehensive assessment of the LMB transboundary water, this study provides insights into the impacts of the increasing risks to the ecosystem and human beings on the water development of the basin over time, which assists to change the awareness and the perspective toward humans’ risks and transboundary river ecosystem of decision-makers. This paper provides valuable recommendations for MRC to improve their policy concerning benefit-sharing scheme, water planning and risk mitigation strategies.

Multi-Criteria Group Decision-Making Method Based on an Improved Single-Valued Neutrosophic Hamacher Weighted Average Operator and Grey Relational Analysis

This paper proposes a multi-criteria decision-making (MCGDM) method based on the improved single-valued neutrosophic Hamacher weighted averaging (ISNHWA) operator and grey relational analysis (GRA) to overcome the limitations of present methods based on aggregation operators. First, the limitations of several existing single-valued neutrosophic weighted averaging aggregation operators (i.e. , the single-valued neutrosophic weighted averaging, single-valued neutrosophic weighted algebraic averaging, single-valued neutrosophic weighted Einstein averaging, single-valued neutrosophic Frank weighted averaging, and single-valued neutrosophic Hamacher weighted averaging operators), which can produce some indeterminate terms in the aggregation process, are discussed. Second, an ISNHWA operator was developed to overcome the limitations of existing operators. Third, the properties of the proposed operator, including idempotency, boundedness, monotonicity, and commutativity, were analyzed. Application examples confirmed that the ISNHWA operator and the proposed MCGDM method are rational and effective. The proposed improved ISNHWA operator and MCGDM method can overcome the indeterminate results in some special cases in existing single-valued neutrosophic weighted averaging aggregation operators and MCGDM methods.

Sanitary Landfill Site Selection Using Multi-criteria Analysis Evaluation:Case Study of Dibra Region,Albania

Landfill is a common solution for the final disposal of MSW(Municipal Solid Waste)in Albania.Landfill sitting is an extremely difficult task to accomplish because the site selection process depends on different factors and regulations.To ensure that an appropriate site is chosen,a systematic process should be developed and followed.In this study,10 candidate sites for an appropriate landfill area in Dibra Region are determined by using the MCE(Multi-criteria Evaluation).From the application of the exclusion criteria provided in the study methodology,it was able to find the best three alternatives.The statistical processing for the determination of the best place was accomplished through MCA(Multi-criteria Analysis)and Environmental Management,for three scenarios with different weights of criteria.The application of this method has led to the identification of the most suitable site for the construction of sanitary landfill in the Dibra Region.

Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis for Usage Based Optimization of Powertrains

The electrification of powertrains leads to an increasing diversification of powertrain configurations. Each single configuration has its specific advantages which appear depending on the usage profile. To find the usage based optimal powertrain in consideration of a variety of evaluation criteria, the powertrains have to be optimized for the usage profile and characteristics have to be extracted from the usage profile. The carbon dioxide emissions of the optimized powertrains and usage based criteria are used in a multi-criteria decision analysis to determine the optimal powertrain for a specific usage profile. The description of characteristic maps forms the objective function of a minimization problem. The determined carbon dioxide emissions are one criterion in a multi-criteria decision process. All considered criteria are at least partly objective so that subjective ratings are eliminated as far as possible. The result is an optimized powertrain for a desired usage under the consideration of objective criteria that are extracted from the usage profile.

“AniFair”:A GUI Based Software Tool for Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis--An Example of Assessing Animal Welfare

Multi-criteria decision analysis deals with decision problems in which multiple criteria need to be considered. The criteria might be measured on different scales so that comparability is difficult. One approach to help the user to organize the problem and to reflect on his or her assessment on the decision is Measuring Attractiveness by a Categorical Based Evaluation TecHnique (MACBETH). Here the user needs to provide qualitative judgment about differences of attractiveness regarding pairs of options. MACBETH was implemented in the M-MACBETH software using the additive aggregation model. The present article introduces the software tool “AniFair” which combines the MACBETH approach with the Choquet integral as an aggregation function, because the Choquet integral enables the modeling of interaction between criteria. With the Choquet integral, the user can define constraints on the relative importance of criteria (Shapley value) and the interaction between criteria. In contrast to M-MACBETH, with every instance of “AniFair” the user is made available at least two aggregation level. “AniFair” provides Graphical User Interfaces for the entering of information. The software tool is introduced via an example from the Welfare Quality Assessment protocol for pigs. With this, “AniFair” is applied to real data that were collected from thirteen farms in Northern Germany by an animal welfare expert. The “AniFair” results enabled a division of the farms into five groups of comparable performance concerning the welfare principle “Good feeding”. Hereby, the results differed in how much the interaction between criteria contributed to the Choquet integral values. The shares varied from 5% to 55%. With this, the vulnerability of aggregation results towards relative importance of and interaction between criteria was stressed, as changes in the ranking due to the definition of constraints could be shown. All results were exported to human readable txt or csv files for further analyses, and advice could be given to the farmers on how to improve their welfare situation.

Study and Analysis of Chennai Flood 2015 Using GIS and Multicriteria Technique

Terrain characteristics of the land and meteorological properties of the region are the main natural factors for flood. The recent flood in Chennai was unexpected and not triggered by the above factors. Sometimes floods occur when the watershed size is considerably small which leads to the over flow of water inland may due to the encroachment and the urban development of the city. Temporarily used backwater effects in sewers and local drainage channels and creation of unsanitary conditions may cause flooding. Chennai flood was basically claimed to occur due to improper drainage system and underlying strata which was found to be landfill over the ponds and lakes. The Coouam River which flows through the centre of main city was found silting due to the improper drainage facilities and encroachment by the local peoples who causes flood. For the analysis of potentially affected areas Geographical Information System (GIS) integrated with Multicriteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) were employed. Ranking and displaying the potentially risky areas, the spatial Multicriteria analysis was used. It has been revealed that all most all the area’s having populations are likely to be exposed to flood hazard. At the end of study, a map of flood risk areas was generated and studied with a view to assisting decision makers on the consequences posed by the disaster.

Proposal for the Introduction of the Spatial Perspective in the Application of Global Sensitivity Analysis

In any model, Sensitivity Analysis (SA) is a fundamental process to improve the robustness and credibility of the results, as part of validation procedure. Generally, SA determined how the variation in the model output can be apportioned to different sources of variations, and how the given model depends upon the information fed into it. Many complex techniques of SA have been developed within the field of numerical modeling;however, they have limited applications for spatial models, as they do not consider variations in the spatial distributions of the variables included. In this research, a variation in the implementation of a Global Sensitivity Analysis (E-FAST) is proposed in order to include the spatial level. For this purpose the conventional tools available in a raster Geographical Information System (GIS) are used. The procedure has been tested in a simulation of urban growth for the Madrid Region (Spain) based on Multi-Criteria Evaluation (MCE) techniques. The results suggest that the inclusion of the spatial perspective in the application of the SA is necessary, because it can modify the factors that have a decisive influence on the results.

Suitable Land Assessment for Rice Crop in Burkina Faso Using GIS, Remote Sensing and Multi Criteria Analysis

In Burkina Faso, rice consumption is currently common and increasing in both, rural and urban areas. Although several efforts have been made by the state to develop land for rice cultivation, the population’s demand is still greater than the supply. Nevertheless, the country has great potential for rice cultivation. This study aims to analyze the suitability of land for rice cropping in the province of Nahouri. Field and satellite data were collected to map the rice crops developed areas. Furthermore, morphopedological, topographic, land use/cover, and accessibility to land data were collected and integrated into a Geographic Information System (GIS) based on simple Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA). Land suitability for rice crop was performed. The results show that the total suitable area for rice cultivation in the province is 106,373 ha (28% of the province) where the most suitable areas cover 32,614 ha and the suitable areas cover 73,759 ha. Already 3144 ha of the province area had been developed for rice cultivation with 815 ha and 845 ha of most suitable and suitable areas respectively whereas more than 45% of the developed lands were not fit for the rice crop suitable land.

Contribution to the Economic Analysis of Hydrocarbon Exploitation in the Eastern Mediterranean Region

The present paper is a contribution to the economic analysis of the exploitation of depleted natural resources and in particular hydrocarbons in the wider Eastern Mediterranean region.The methodological tools used are both the marginal economic analysis,the application of the Hotelling rule and the multi-criteria choice of exploitation of a natural resource with sensitivity analysis of the first and second optimal solution.The choice of natural resource used to be based on a single criterion,cost.Today,the multi-criteria method is followed,according to which many criteria are taken into account at the same time.The return on investment from the exploitation of a mineral resource in the wider Eastern Mediterranean region is obtained through multi-criteria selection and sensitivity analysis of the prevailing solution.

Groundwater Exploration Using Multi Criteria Decision Analysis and Analytic Hierarchy Process in Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Central Nigeria

There exists a growing demand for potable water resources to fill the abysmally insufficient water needs for domestic and industrial especially in the Basement Complex terrains of Nigeria. This situation is attributable to its complex hydrogeologic character. The present challenge has worsened due to the non-incorporation of integrated methods in groundwater exploration campaigns. To effectively combat the challenge of unacceptable failure rates in drilled water well development, there is a need for innovative scientific principles and quantitative assessment of groundwater resources to enhance sustainable and proper utilisation of these resources. Hence, it is the objective of this research to exploit the potential application of remote sensing, Geographic Information System (GIS), and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) techniques and freely open datasets in mapping groundwater potential zones. Seven thematic maps have been produced based on factors that are deemed to influence and deemed to have significant control on the occurrence and movement of groundwater. These factors are geology, lineament density, slope, drainage density, rainfall, land-use/land cover, and soil class. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used to assign normalised weights to the thematic maps based on the various relative contributions to groundwater occurrence and movement. These thematic maps were then processed in a GIS environment using the Weighted Overlay tool which implements the MCDA. The resulting Groundwater Potential Zones (GPZ) of the area gave rise to Five classes viz: Very good, Good, Moderate, Poor and Very Poor representing 19%, 8%, 14%, 47% and 13% respectively. It is recommended that the GPZ map should be used as a reconnaissance tool for selecting prospective sites for detailed groundwater resource exploitation.

Spatial Analysis and Modelling of Wind Farm Site Suitability in Nasarawa State, North-Central Nigeria

There has been an increasing global and local interest in developing renewable, clean, and cheap energy towards achieving Goal number 7 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). However, decisions involving suitable and sustainable locations for renewable energy projects remain an important task. This study employed Geographic Information System (GIS) and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) to spatially analyze and model wind farm site suitability in Nasarawa State. The aim is to integrate the environmental, social, and economic aspects of decision-making for identifying sustainable wind farm sites. The study distinguished between two sets of decision criteria: decision constraints and decision factors. The former defined the exclusion zones while the latter were standardized based on fuzzy logic to depict varying degrees of suitability across the State. The MCDA applied the weighted linear combination method, with relative weights generated through pairwise comparisons of the analytic hierarchy process to analyze three policy scenarios: equal weights, environmental/social priority, and economic priority scenario. A combination of resulting composite maps from the constraints and the factors gave the final suitability maps. The resulting suitability index (SI) for the respective policy scenario describes the degrees of suitability: Ideal locations were denoted by one (1) and the not suitable locations by zero (0), with values in-between depicting varying degrees of wind farm site suitability. Based on the SI, priority locations indicating areas with good prospects, in addition to the most suitable parcels of land, were identified and delineated. The composite decision constraint revealed that wind farm projects would not be viable in more than half (57.58%) of the State. Wind speed was the major constraint and accounted for the exclusion of 46.25%, with a mean fuzzy membership value of 0.2008 indicating low suitability across the State. Also, the average acceptable wind farm location for the three-policy scenario was 33.33% of the entire study area. Lafia, Obi, Keana, Awe, Nasarawa-Eggon, Wamba and Kokona LGAs were the identified priority Local Government Areas (LGAs). However, only Lafia, Obi, and Nasarawa-Eggon were consistent with changes in the policy objectives. All the priority LGAs have one or more of the most suitable parcels within their administrative boundaries except for Wamba. Despite the severe limitations of wind speed, substantial parts of Nasarawa State still provide great development potentials for wind energy. The “most suitable” locations in Lafia, Nasarawa-Eggon, and Obi LGAs should have first consideration for the development of wind energy in the State.

Multi-Criteria Wildfire Risk Hazard Assessment in GIS Environment: Projection for the Future and Impact on RES Projects Installation Planning

It is alarming for the fact that Wildfires number, severity and consequently impact have significantly increased during the last years, an aftermath of the Climate Change. One of the most affected areas worldwide is Mediterranean, due to the unique combination of its type of vegetation and demanding climatic conditions. This research is focused on the Region of Epirus in Greece, an area with significant natural vegetation and a range of geomorphological aspects. In order to estimate the Wildfire Risk Hazard, several factors have been used: geomorphological (slope, aspect, elevation, TWI, Hydrographic network), social (Settlements and landfils, roads, overhead lines and substations), environmental (land cover) and climatic (Fire Weather Index). Through a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) and an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) in a GIS environment, the Wildfire Risk Hazard has been estimated not only for current conditions but also for future projections for the near future (2031-2060) and the far future (2071-2100). The selected case study includes the potential impact of the Wildfires to the installed (or targeted to be installed) RES projects in the studied region.