Application of VIKOR and fuzzy AHP for conservation priority assessment in coastal areas: Case of Khuzestan district, Iran Sharareh Pourebrahim a, * , Mehrdad Hadipour b , Mazlin Bin Mokhtar c , Shahabaldin Taghavi d a Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Natural Resources, College of Agriculture & Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran b Department of Environment, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Arak University, Iran c Institute for Environment and Development (LESTARI), National University Malaysia, (UKM), Bangi 43600, Selangor, Malaysia d Industrial Engineering, Science and Research Azad University, Iran article info Article history: Available online xxx abstract The evaluation of sustainability in coastal lands needs some critical criteria and indicators. These criteria include both qualitative and quantitative data. To make a selection among criteria and alternatives for coastal land-use development, there is a need for Multi Criteria Analysis methods (MCDM). In this study, an integrated VIKOR-Fuzzy AHP method has been applied to make a selection among criteria and al- ternatives for conservation development in a coastal area. Using fuzzy AHP, one of the main weaknesses of AHP in the pair-wise comparison process can be improved. A range of values was used instead of a crisp value. This paper presents an innovative, reliable method for the identification of the most important criteria and alternatives using fuzzy AHP-VIKOR. To determine the weights of the criteria, a fuzzy pairwise comparison using the AHP method based on expert opinions in different disciplines was applied in this study. The first section of this paper is devoted to understanding sustainable coastal land use planning, along with the decision making process and its complexity and to defining the objectives. Literature about frequently used MCDM techniques in different studies is briefly summarized in this section. In Section 2, a modified fuzzy VIKOR methodology is presented. It describes the definition of criteria, the means used to gather information, the study area and the procedure that is applied in the fuzzy AHP-VIKOR technique. Additionally, this section shows how a fuzzy AHP can be jointly used with VIKOR for a priority assessment of different alternatives for conservation. Section 3 includes detailed analyses. Based on 17 criteria and 6 alternatives, it was found that Musa Estuary, one of the largest es- tuaries in the Persian Gulf and located in the northeast of the Persian Gulf, is the most appropriate zone for conservation. Section 4 presents a discussion of the results, and the final section is devoted to con- clusions regarding these findings. Based on these findings, the integration of social, economic and environmental criteria within a planning framework using fuzzy MCDM techniques has provided a holistic approach for integrated coastal land-use development. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Contextual overview and theoretical techniques for sustainable coastal land use planning People have often preferred coastal locations for settlement because, among other benefits, these areas have the greatest bio- logical productivity. Relative to rapid land-use changes, various issues and problems appear in coastal areas. Some of these issues include environmental pollution and land-use conflicts, as well as the availability of land for future development (Yaakup et al., 2004; Turner et al., 2004). The competition between coastal ecosystems and human activities along coastal zones has resulted in environ- mental degradation, which has a negative impact on the economic and social value of the coast (Tang et al., 2005). There are also institutional issues such as a lack of trained human resources, insufficient legal provisions for coastal land planning, inadequate implementation of existing policies, legislation and guidelines, poor links between science and policy making and the lack of financial resources for coastal zone management (EPU and DANCED, 1999). On the other hand, an important goal in geo- * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ98 9127617834. E-mail addresses: sh_pourebrahim@ut.ac.ir (S. Pourebrahim), mhadipour50@ yahoo.com (M. Hadipour). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Ocean & Coastal Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ocecoaman http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2014.05.009 0964-5691/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Ocean & Coastal Management 96 (2014) 1e7