Prioritization of Cartagena Coastal Military Batteries to Transform Them into Scientific, Tourist and Cultural Places of Interest: A GIS-MCDM Approach

Abstract

This study presents a combination of multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methodologies with geographic information systems (GIS) to carry out a prioritization of obsolete military coastal batteries with the aim of transforming them into touristic, scientific, and cultural places of interest. The study area is located in the Municipality of Cartagena, in Southeast Spain. Such a prioritization requires taking into account transport criteria (distance to roads or train stations), infrastructure criteria (distance to electrical grids or distance to water tanks), touristic or scientific criteria (distance to towns, beaches, archaeological sites, assets of cultural interest, etc.), and orography criteria (area, altitude, and slope of each battery). Therefore, this decision problem involves a set of alternatives (coastal military batteries) to be prioritized based on a group of criteria that should be considered. To tackle this, GIS software is used to provide the attribute table of alternatives and criteria (decision matrix), and the proposed decision problem is solved through a combination of MCDM methodologies based on the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) techniques. The AHP approach is applied to determine the weights of the criteria whilst the TOPSIS method provides a ranking of alternatives in order to obtain a prioritization.

Modification of the Logarithm Methodology of Additive Weights (LMAW) by a Triangular Fuzzy Number and Its Application in Multi-Criteria Decision Making

“…Sánchez-Lozano and Rodríguez [38] use the Fuzzy Reference Ideal Method (FRIM) for the selection of the best military advanced training aircraft in the Spanish Air Force. Sánchez-Lozano et al [39] showed a combination of the MCDM methodology (the AHP and TOPSIS methods) with the geographic information systems (GIS) used to carry out prioritization of obsolete military coastal batteries with the aim of transforming them into touristic, scientific, and cultural places of interest. De Almeda et al [40] used the Simple Aggregation of Preferences Expressed by Ordinal method Vectors-Multi Decision Makers (SAPEVO-M) and VIKOR methods to select the most suitable city as the headquarters of the Second Fleet of the Brazilian Navy.…”

Multi-criteria analysis applied to aircraft selection by Brazilian Navy

“…Sánchez-Lozano et al (2015) selected military training aircraft for the Spanish Air Force, through hybrid modeling composed of AHP, TOPSIS and Fuzzy Logic. Sánchez-Lozano et al (2020) conducted a study to prioritize obsolete military coastal batteries, to transform them into places of tourist interest in Spain, through the application of the GIS, AHP and TOPSIS methods.…”

Application of AHP and GIS for Determination of Suitable Wireless Sensor Network Zones for Oceanographic Monitoring in the South Caribbean Sea Upwelling Zone

“…Because the System has a trivial solution, (1) must be a singular matrix. Being (3) an equation of degree n, called the characteristic equation of M, which is equal to 0 if λ is replaced by M, producing a matrix equation, where the roots are the characteristic values that were obtained from the priority vector, from of the solution of the corresponding systems of equations [42], [43].…”