Using the analytical hierarchy process to assess the environmental vulnerabilities of basins in Taiwan

Abstract

Every year, Taiwan endures typhoons and earthquakes; these natural hazards often induce landslides and debris flows. Therefore, watershed management strategies must consider the environmental vulnerabilities of local basins. Because many factors affect basin ecosystems, this study applied multiple criteria analysis and the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to evaluate seven criteria in three phases (geographic phase, hydrologic phase, and societal phase). This study focused on five major basins in Taiwan: the Tan-Shui River Basin, the Ta-Chia River Basin, the Cho-Shui River Basin, the Tseng-Wen River Basin, and the Kao-Ping River Basin. The objectives were a comprehensive examination of the environmental characteristics of these basins and a comprehensive assessment of their environmental vulnerabilities. The results of a survey and AHP analysis showed that landslide area is the most important factor for basin environmental vulnerability. Of all these basins, the Cho-Shui River Basin in central Taiwan has the greatest environmental vulnerability.

Assessing the significance of wetland restoration scenarios on sediment mitigation plan

“…AHP is an optimization algorithm that can solve complex decision-making problems (Linkov and Steevens, 2013) by using evaluation criteria based on expert knowledge and pairwise comparison (Young et al, 2009). The AHP algorithm was developed by Saaty (1980) and has been widely used in diverse fields such storm water BMP selection (Young et al, 2011), environmental vulnerability assessment of river basins (Chang and Chao, 2012), land suitability assessment for irrigation (Chen et al, 2010), integrated watershed management (Biswas et al, 2012), landfill site selection (Şener et al, 2010), and solvent selection in pharmaceutical processes (Perez-Vega et al, 2011). However, to the best of our knowledge, using AHP for wetland placement in large and complex watersheds such as the River Raisin Watershed has not been explored.…”

Evaluation of basin environmental vulnerability: the weighted method compared to the compromise method

“…The criteria weights, which were determined by a survey and the AHP method, can describe the degree of impact of each criterion (Saaty 1980(Saaty , 1990(Saaty , 2008Noble and Sanchez 1993). The weights of these seven criteria were 0.13, 0.28, 0.14, 0.11, 0.12, 0.14, and 0.08, respectively (Chang and Chao 2011). The criterion ''landslide area size'' has the greatest influence on basin environmental vulnerability.…”

“…The weighted method, the compromise method, and the constraint method have been commonly applied in MCA (Opricovic and Tzeng 2007;Ahn and Park 2008;Chang 2010). In our past study, we determined a set of criteria and criteria weights from a survey and the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) analysis (Chang and Chao 2011). This study uses two different methods, the weighted method and the compromise method, to integrate the criteria and compares the environmental vulnerability of five main basins in Taiwan.…”

Using the VIKOR method to evaluate the design of a water quality monitoring network in a watershed

“…Environmental vulnerability and disaster risk are high in Taiwan. Floods and droughts negatively impact the environment and people's live (Lu et al 2001;Chang et al 2008a, b;Chang and Chao 2012). Besides Taiwan, many countries in the world also face troublesome water and environmental problems.…”