A Hybrid AHP-TOPIS-Based Marine Economic Activities Evaluation Model for Marine Geospatial Data Infrastructure

Abstract

Marine economic activities are related to the economics of marine resources and maritime sectors, particularly for Marine Geospatial Data Infrastructure (MGDI) and the blue economy. Malaysia has different resource-based economic activities within its maritime delineation zones (MDZs), characterized to be a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. However, previous studies have not adequately examined these activities across the MDZs. This paper assesses Malaysia's marine economic activities in these zones through a novel and hybrid framework incorporating the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the Techniques for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) models. AHP was used to evaluate the economic criterion of MGDI, while, the priorities obtained serve as part of the input data for the TOPSIS model that examined the trends in economic activities across the MDZs and rank them in order of preference. The results suggest that naval administration, sovereignty, and defense are highly prioritized among the five marine economic activities considered, with a value of 42%. Meanwhile, the Contiguous Zone was the highest-ranked MDZ for economic activities in Malaysian waters, with a computed  values of 27.7%. This approach provides stakeholders with an evaluation model to assess marine economic activities in different MDZs, providing a robust framework for effective evaluations of MCDM, and marine operations.