Barriers to Decision-Making about Water, Food and Energy Resources According to Climate Changes; Applying the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process Method

• Main Authors: Mohamad Reza Goodarzi, Reza Piryaei, Mir Rahim Mousavi
• Format: Article
• Language: fas
• Published: Afarand Scholarly Publishing Institute 2019-09-01
• Series: تحقيقات جغرافيايی
• Subjects: climate changes; barriers to decision-making; fuzzy ahp hierarchical method; water-energy-food nexus
• Online Access: http://georesearch.ir/article-1-706-en.html

Aims & Backgrounds: The connections (Nexus) among Water, Food and Energy respresent a number of interdisciplinary and multi-sectoral complexities and challenges. Water, Food and Energy resources are affected by climate change. The present study aims at evaluating the impact of climate change on decision making regarding Water, Food and Energy using Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process Method. Methodology: The main purpose of this research is to prioritize decision barriers using multi-criteria decision-making techniques. The purpose of the present study is in the field of applied research. Fuzzy hierarchical analysis technique was used to prioritize the elements. Questionnaires based on paired comparison from the expertschr('39') point of view were used for data collection. Findings: The results suggest that water resource is put in the first priority with the normal weight of 0.591, food with the normal weight of 0.304, and energy with the normal weight of 0.105 are in the second and third priority respectively. Furthermore, a new approach to the integrated management of sustainable development is recognized as the most important barrier to making decisions on the measures of water, food and energy with the normal weights of 0.256, 0.261 & 0.292. The last important barriers are identified as cooperation and communication, the nature of response to communicational shocks, and cooperation and communication with the normal weights of 0.069, 0.087 and 0.071, respectivelly. With respect to the final prioritization, the new approach to the integrated management of sustainable development and the measure of cooperation and communication are acknowledged as the most and least important barriers, respectively, with the normal weights of 0.292 and 0.071. Conclusion: water, food and energy resource are ranked first, second and third respectively. The most important barrier for decision making regarding water, food and energy was “the new approach for managing and organizing considering sustainable development” and the least important one is “communication and collaboration”.