Assessment of a Spatial Multi-Criteria Evaluation Method to Locate Suitable Industrial Zones in Ardabil, Iran

The global policies concerning the selection of suitable sites for establishing and developing industries aim to prevent potential environmental crises, optimize existing facilities on land, and take the available opportunities in the long run. Located in northwestern Iran, Ardabil is a notable area for such areas. Accordingly, this paper aims to locate suitable sites for industrial parks in Ardabil. To this end, a combination of various systems was used: a multicriteria decision support system (MCDSS), a spatial decision support system (SDSS), and the geographical information system (GIS). This study was inspired by the SMCE model recently developed into ILWIS software as a non-compensational method. This model considers the objective and spatial priorities of decision-makers. First, the effective criteria for selecting the disposal site were identified based on the analytical hierarchy process (AHP): these criteria were divided into smaller components and surfaces. The present criteria in each component were prioritized using the pair-wise comparisons method. In this method, each element concerning the importance is weighted in a range of one to nine: one for low importance and nine for high importance. The weighting importance level was computed using the Satty method for each surface. After preparing the essential information layers, such as distance from well, fault, and hydraulic slope, the calculated weights were assigned to layers using a tree structure. Finally, four construction scenarios were formulated by overlaying available information layers.