Determining criteria weight for assessing the potential development of freshwater fish farming in Hung Yen province by analytic hierarchy process (AHP)

Abstract

This study aims to apply the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to determine the criteria weight for assessing the potential development of freshwater fish farming in Hung Yen province. The main groups of factors related to freshwater fish farming include natural conditions, environmental ecology and socio-economic conditions. AHP is a mathematical method to support the analysis and handling of multi-criteria decisionmaking problems according to hierarchical levels, with the principle of determining the relative importance of main criteria and sub-criteria by pairwise comparisons, and using absolute numerical ratings. Besides, the expert consultation method also plays an essential role in the study to assess the priority, adjust the hierarchy and make objective judgments in determining the
weights. The main research result was a summary table determining the weights calculated from the opinions of experts in the fields of fisheries planning, freshwater fish farming, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The weights associated with the set of evaluation criteria are the basis of the superposition of information, data, and GIS analysis, thereby building a map to assess the potential for developing freshwater fish farming in Hung Yen province to ensure accuracy and high reliability.