Implementation of GIS-Based Multicriteria Decision Analysis With VB in ArcGIS

Abstract

This article focuses on the integration of multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) and geographical information systems (GIS) and introduces a tool, GIS-MCDA, written in visual basic in ArcGIS for GIS-based MCDA. The GIS-MCDA deals with raster-based data sets and includes standardization, weighting and decision analysis methods, and sensitivity analysis. Simple additive weighting, weighted product method, technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution, compromise programming, analytic hierarchy process, and ordered weighted average for decision analysis; ranking, rating, and pairwise comparison for weighting and linear scale transformation for standardization can be applied by using this tool. The maximum score and score range procedures can be used for linear scale transformation. In this article also an application of the GIS-MCDA to determine the flood vulnerability of the South Marmara Basin in Turkey is examined. To check the validity and reliability of the results, the flood vulnerability layer is compared with flood-affected areas. © 2011 World Scientific Publishing Company.