To improve the safety of cruise tourism in the Yangtze River Delta region (YRD), a new cruise ship home port is needed. This paper studies the process for selection of a site for the new cruise home port. Through analysis of previous cases of cruise tourism safety accidents, it is found that the basic situation of the cruise port, such as the channel, the port, logistics support and scenic places to visit, is important to cruise operation safety. An index system of site selection for a cruise home port is established, and the optimal choice of location for a regional cruise home port – between Shanghai, Zhoushan and Nantong – is analysed by the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The research shows that the order of preferred site for the cruise home port is Zhoushan, then Shanghai and, third, Nantong. This paper can provide a reference for the layout of the whole industry chain of the cruise economy in the YRD in the future. This will promote the integration of development of the YRD, and enhance the regional connectivity and policy system efficiency in the YRD.

The choice between organic and inorganic farming is an exciting debate in scholarly literature. A large number of studies has enriched the discussion. However, this particular study adds to this debate in unique ways. This study uses a hybrid model based on analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), a methodological contribution to the debate of organic and inorganic farming by using multicriteria decision analysis. Also, this study uses several conflicting criteria (such as health benefits, environmental benefits, soil fertility, consumer awareness, etc.) that have not been combined in a single research study earlier to consider the choice of organic and inorganic farming. The study is based on a questionnaire survey undertaken by consumers, farmers and agriculture experts. After the application of the AHP-TOPSIS based hybrid model, several interesting results have been founded that have important policy implications for farming in Pakistan and other developing countries.

Objective: The purpose of this research was to investigate coronavirus disease (COVID-19) susceptibility in districts of Bangladesh using multicriteria evaluation techniques.

Methods: Secondary data were collected from different government organizations, 120 primary surveys were conducted for calculating weights, and results were validated through 12 key people’s interviews. Pairwise comparison matrixes were calculated for 9 factors and subfactors. The analytic hierarchy process used for calculating the susceptibility index and map was prepared based on the results.

Results: According to the results, multiple causal factors might be responsible for COVID-19 spreading in Bangladesh. Dhaka might be vulnerable to COVID-19 due to a higher population, population density, and international collaboration. According to the pairwise comparison matrix, the consistency ratio for subfactors and factors was in the permissible limit (ie, less than 0.10). The highest factor weight of 0.2907 was found for the factors type of port. The maximum value for the susceptibility index was 0.435219362 for Chittagong, and the minimum value was 0.076174 for Naogaon.

Conclusions: The findings of this research might help the communities and government agencies with effective decision-making.

The medium to long-term environmental performances of organic, integrated and conventional olive-growing systems in the average conditions of the south of Spain are evaluated and compared with respect to soil erosion, soil fertility, rational use of irrigation water, water contamination, atmospheric pollution and biodiversity, based on experts’ knowledge. The aim of the research was to test the common implicit assumption of environmental superiority of the two alternative farming systems over the conventional system. For this purpose, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), a widely used multi-criteria decision-making tool, has been implemented. AHP enables us to deal with complex decision-making problems with multiple criteria, stakeholders and decision-makers, high uncertainty and risk, such as in the case of multi-criteria environmental comparison of alternative farming systems. Twenty experts in olive production, clustered into three groups according to their professional field of interest, were involved in the analysis. The utilization of experts' knowledge is justified when information relevant for urgent decision-making is not available, is partial or is time and resource demanding, and a holistic perspective is required. Indexes and procedures are proposed for group decision-making, to detect variation in expert opinions and differences between alternative systems' performances. Despite bias in the judgments of the groups of experts in some topics, results confirm the holistic environmental superiority of organic and integrated alternatives over the conventional olive system in Andalusia in the medium to long-term. The results represent a scientific base to justify and endorse institutional support regarding the promotion and implementation of organic and integrated olive-growing systems in the region, which are likely to result in greater social welfare.

In this paper we study bi-directional nearness in a network based on AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) and ANP(Analytic Network Process). Usually we use forward (one-dimensional) direction nearness based on Euclidean distance.Even if the nearest point to i is point j, the nearest point to j is not necessarily point i. Sowe propose theconcept of bi-directional nearness defined by AHP'ssynthesizing of weights “for” direction and “from” direction.This concept of distance is a relative distance based on the configuration ofthe set of points located on a plane ornetwork. In order to confirm the usefulness of our study we apply the proposed nearness to solving methods of TSP(Traveling Salesman Problem), where to find an approximate solution of TSP we improved Nearest-Neighbor Method.Some numerical experiments of TSP were carried out. To decide a nearest point we used two kind of nearness, forwarddirection nearness and bi-directional nearness. As a result, by using bi-directional nearness,we obtained goodapproximate solution of TSP. Moreover, the relation between AHP and ANP, through an example, is considered.