Multicriteria Evaluation in Coastal Management

Authors

  • Amalia Moriki
  • Harry Coccossis
  • Michael Karydis

Keywords:

Integrated analysis, multivariate methods, environmental management

Abstract

The driving forces of the development of the coastal area of the island of Rhodes (Greece) are examined in relation to the quality of the marine environment. The integrated variables of the system were analysed by four multidimensional techniques: Multicriteria Analysis, Cluster Analysis, Multidimensional Scaling and Principal Component Analysis. The analysis was performed in five zones of the island with different socio-economic structure and marine environmental quality. All these methods revealed the same trend in each zone suggesting the robustness of the multidimensional approach. The conflict between the quality of natural resources and the intensity of land use was expressed through the dissimilarity measures of these techniques, and therefore a quantification of the conflicts was obtained. In addition, a graphical illustration of the interrelated variables contributed to a better understanding of the system structure. The use of these algorithms is well established from applications in the fields of ecology and physical planning. They are therefore proposed as an effective analytical tool in problems where coastal development and marine quality are encountered. The combination of the multiple criteria, analytical techniques can contribute to the work of planners and decision-makers to identify the major trends of the system and quantify the interrelated socio-economic and environmental aspects.

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Published

1996-01-22