Parking Site Selection for Light Rail Stations in Muaeng District, Khon Kaen, Thailand

Application of Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Analysis to Rural Spatial Sustainability Evaluation: A Systematic Review

The rational allocation of spatial resources is an important factor to ensure the sustainable development of rural areas, and effective pre-emptive spatial evaluation is the prerequisite for identifying the predicament of rural resource allocation. Multi-criteria decision-making analysis has advantages in solving multi-attribute and multi-objective decision-making problems, and has been used in sustainability evaluation research in various disciplines in recent years. Previous studies have proved the value of spatial evaluation using multi-criteria decision analysis in guiding rural incremental development and inventory updates, but systematic reviews of the previous literature from a multidisciplinary perspective and studies of the implementation steps of the evaluation framework are lacking. In the current paper, the research is reviewed from the two levels of quantitative statistics and research content, and through vertical and horizontal comparisons based on three common operating procedures: standard formulation, weight distribution, and ranking and verification. Through the results, the application status and characteristics of the MCDA method in related research are determined, and five research foci in the future are proposed.

Performance Evaluation of Hospital Site Suitability Using Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) Models in Malacca, Malaysia

This study focuses on suitable site identification for constructing a hospital in Malacca, Malaysia. Using significant environmental, topographic, and geodemographic factors, the study evaluated and compared machine learning (ML) and multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) for hospital site suitability mapping to discover the highest influential factors that minimize the error ratio and maximize the effectiveness of the suitability investigation. Identification of the most significant conditioning parameters that impact the choice of an appropriate hospital site was accomplished using correlation-based feature selection (CFS) with a search algorithm (greedy stepwise). To model the potential hospital site map, we utilized multilayer perceptron (MLP) and analytical hierarchy process (AHP) models. The outcome of the predicted site models was validated utilizing CFS 10-fold cross-validation, as well as ROC curve (receiver operating characteristic curve). The analysis of CFS indicated a very high correlation with R2 values of 0.99 for the MLP model. However, the ROC curve indicated a prediction accuracy of 80% for the MLP model and 83% for the AHP model. The findings revealed that the MLP model is reliable and consistent with the AHP. It is a sufficiently promising approach to the location suitability of hospitals to ensure effective planning and performance of healthcare delivery.

A GIS-Based Analysis of the Light Rail Transit Systems in Spain

Throughout the last decades, light rail transit systems (LRT) have been built around the world due to their strengths: regularity, savings in CO2 emissions, flexibility, image and optimization of urban space. This research proposes the analyses of a group of LRTs by using a method supported by GIS. Some data and parameters have been stated in order to define the systems. The range of values obtained allow us to characterize the LRT systems operating in Spain: for instance, mean distance range between stations is 405 m to 685 m, and potential users range (people who live no more than 500 m from a station) is 18,000 to 30,000, and population density in the capture areas is never below 1514 pop/km2 (in cities with no metro system). The benefit of the present study is to establish common data values that could be useful in future studies and preliminary projects carried out in other Spanish cities interested in introducing an LRT in their urban grid, and also for comparison with LRT in other countries. The method could be also applied to other public transportation systems, and to other countries.

Comparison of GIS-based AHP and fuzzy AHP methods for hospital site selection: a case study for Prayagraj City, India

Identification of hospital sites and their ranking is important for the planning and development of any country's health infrastructure. The site selection problem is a typical multi-criteria decision making problem involving multiple stakeholders and their interests. Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) is a promising approach to solve a location-based problem due to the constitution of various criteria involved in decision making. In this research, eleven criterion are chosen which are classified under three main criteria; socio-economic, geographical and environmental. This research aims to identify the appropriate MCDA method for the selection of a new hospital sites. Here, two MCDA methods named Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Fuzzy AHP (FAHP) are used. Further, Geographical Information System (GIS) based MCDA methodology is proposed in this paper. The results obtained with both AHP and FAHP methods are compared. This comparison is based on criterion rankings, proposed hospital locations and sensitivity analysis. The main difference in results is shown in the result of sensitivity analysis in which constant variation in site ranking is obtained when weight change analysis is performed using AHP. The FAHP result shows only one variation in site ranking after a change in weight from +10 to +20%. The result suggests that FAHP may be a better approach to the hospital site selection problem.