ASSESSMENT OF DROUGHT PROCESS WITH INTEGRATED MULTI-CRITERIA DECISION-MAKING METHODS

Abstract

This study aimed to prioritize the factors affecting the drought, which is an important issue for the sustainability ofagricultural production, and classify the factors by the severity of dry periods. An integrated decision model based onmulti-criteria decision making (MCDM) techniques, Entropy, TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity toIdeal Solution) and MAUT (Multi Attribute Utility Theory) methods, was presented in the study. The proposed decisionmodel was applied on a numerical case study to determine the drought periods, considering some climatic parametersbetween 1971 and 2019 in Kırşehir province. The Entropy-weighted results relative to TOPSIS and MAUT methodsindicated 17 drought years within the last 49 years, and the drought severity in 17 years was classified in three differentlevels as weak, moderate and severe. Ten out of 17 years were weakly drought (20.41%), 6 of them were moderatedrought (12.24%), and 1 year was serious drought (2.04%). The results of MAUT method showed that 11 of 17 years wereweak drought (22.45%), 5 were moderate drought (10.20%) and 1 was serious drought (2.04%). The results revealedthat the use of multi-criteria decision making models such as Entropy, TOPSIS and MAUT can support the decisionanalysis for combating agricultural drought in fruit growing by using long-term climatic factors.