Measures and evaluation for environment watershed plans using a novel hybrid MCDM model

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Abstract

Although environment watershed plans have management and erosion control plans, public perception often focuses excessively on catastrophes. Environment plans are affected by many factors such as human life, property, safety, management, operations, maintenance, ecology, the environment, artificial structures, and climate control. The purpose of this paper is to qualitatively and quantitatively measure the environment watershed plan indexes and to achieve the aspired levels for these plan indexes. Previous efforts to evaluate the environment plans have assumed that the criteria are independent, but reality proves otherwise. Here, we use a novel hybrid multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) model to address the dependent relationships among the criteria. Specifically, we combined the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory model (DEMATEL) with the analytical network process (ANP) to calculate the relative weights of the criteria under interdependence and feedback. A real-life environment watershed problem is investigated to demonstrate the proposed novel hybrid MCDM model. We also propose a strategy to improve the criteria gaps for achieving the aspired levels for human life and safety.

Introduction

The US Environmental Protection Agency defines a watershed as “the area of land where all of the water that is under it or drains off of it goes into the same place”. John Wesley Powell defines it as “that area of land, a bounded hydrologic system, within which all living things are inextricably linked by their common water course…”. Environment watershed planning is very important because it affects human life and safety. Its requirements are particularly difficult to fulfill in a dynamic geography with earthquakes, typhoons, and torrential rains. The commonly used measurements in environment watershed performance are storm water level and improvement during catastrophes, urbanization of land and the monitored rate (Adhityawarma and Trauth, 2007, Byun et al., 2005, Chen et al., 2008a, Chen et al., 2008b, Chen et al., 2009a, Chen et al., 2009b, Sara et al., 2000), forestation or vegetation in watersheds (Karibu et al., 2006), forest ecosystems, and environmental changes (Kohyama, Canadell, Ojima, & Pitelka, 2005), a storm water retrofit plan for the mimico creek watershed (Li & Banting, 1999). These measurements only represent a small portion of the scenario, with over 90% of the “latent” events not reflected by them. Another way of looking at watershed planning is within a multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) framework characterized by multiple conflicting criteria (Hwang & Yoon, 1981). The government has been forced to impose many plan regulations upon watershed management in an effort to reduce soil erosion. Watershed management and erosion control are also considered when new calamities or increased hydraulic structure quotas are applied to protect human life and safety. The proper evaluation of plan records has proved a challenge, however, as insufficient data makes objective assessment difficult.

We propose a novel hybrid MCDM model to solve these problems through an expert group. A decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) technique is used to detect complex relationships and build a network relation map (NRM) among criteria for environment watershed measurement and evaluation. An analytic network process (ANP) was used by Saaty (1996) to overcome the problem of dependence and feedback among criteria or alternatives. This is a general form of the AHP that releases the hierarchical structural restrictions. However, in the decision-making structure of AHP models, a unidirectional hierarchical relationship among decision levels is adopted. Furthermore, the ANP of NRM does not require a strictly hierarchical structure but uses a ratio scale formed by human judgments instead of arbitrary scales. Using ratio scales to capture all kinds of interactions and human judgments, assessing dispatching rules for wafer fabrication, and making accurate predictions through the use of these scales is what makes ANP a powerful method (Chung et al., 2005, Lin et al., 2007, Tuzkaya et al., 2008). Since ratio scales are a fundamental kind of number amenable to performing the basic arithmetic operations of adding within the same scale and multiplying different scales meaningfully as required by the ANP (Saaty, 2003), it also makes it possible to measure all tangible and intangible criteria in the model. Here, DEMATEL is used in combination with ANP to construct a new plan measurement model. The qualitative and quantitative measurements of the comprehensive conservation are used to build the environment watershed plan system indexes and to achieve the aspired levels in these plan system indexes.

An empirical case is used to demonstrate how the new hybrid MCDM model can be used to analyze an environment watershed plan. Since this study is a discussion of how the criteria/factors affect environment watershed plans, our study surveys watershed experts who have knowledge or experience in environment watersheds in order to measure the performance of environment watersheds. There are several objectives of good environment watershed planning: First, reduce water sand calamity to lose and protect lives and property. Second, safeguard the ecosystem, which gives consideration to people and natural equilibrium development in order to maintain good environmental quality. Third, monitor the environment around water collection districts and enforce good construction methods in order to balance the quality of the environment with development. Fourth, use the water and soil resources rationally. We need to maintain the health of water collection districts in order to achieve sustainable development.

The proposed model could be used to evaluate the effectiveness by finding the central criteria for evaluating and illustrating criteria interrelations based on NRM and by finding elements to improve the effectiveness of environment watershed plans and make strategic target plans. Moreover, the results show that the effectiveness calculated by the proposed model is consistent with that from DEMATEL and ANP.

The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 summarizes some important previous research. We introduce the environment watershed effect measurements, determine the influential factors of environment watershed effectiveness, and establish the research hypotheses by a literature review. In Section 3, a brief introduction of DEMATEL and ANP techniques is given. We establish a novel hybrid model using these methods. In Section 4, an empirical study of an environment watershed plan is shown using the proposed evaluation model. The results are discussed and compared with the traditional additive evaluation model. Section 5 concludes with remarks.

Section snippets

Environment watershed plan measurements

What is a watershed? Component landforms that commonly occur in a watershed include steam channels, floodplains, stream terraces, alluvial valley bottoms, alluvial fans, mountain slopes, and ridge tops (Petersen, 1999). Environment watershed plan measurements involve a number of complex factors, however, including management engineering, ecological restoration, environmental construction, and environmental conservation issues. In the past, a plan dimension index could be based simply on the

Building a novel hybrid MCDM model for environment watershed plan

In Section 2, this paper establishes a watershed environmental plan system that will exert an influence in the watershed environment. When the government, educational circles, and industry work together and plan at the same time, they will collect the relations and different literary composition dimensions and criterion of the watershed environment and produce some impact on the watershed environment. Thus, a watershed environmental plan must consider in detail watershed management and erosion

An empirical case: Case of the Pei-Keng brook environment watershed plan systems

Located in Taiwan, the study area comprises four parts. This planning includes the Guoxing town of Nantou County, where the township’s Nangang River has a small stream and the Pei-Keng creek rises in the Sijiao mountain (1172M), the Cukeng branch rises in the Kandou mountain (1097M), the Juicaihu creek rises in the Juifener mountain (1174M), and the Hongxianshui branch rises in the Heshangtou mountain (955M) (Fig. 3).

The plan systems are complex, composed of environmental, software, hardware,

Conclusions and remarks

Using the DEMATEL in conjunction with an ANP, we determined the relative weights of the criteria. The DEMATEL works in an ANP to construct a new measurement model for environment watershed effects, which may be worthy of further research. This is an important finding in this study. The proposed model is suitable to deal with any decision problems that are complicated and confusing and whose criteria are interdependent. This model can be applied to many fields such as environment planning,

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