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Freeze–thaw (FT) erosion intensity may exhibit a future increasing trend with climate warming, humidification, and permafrost degradation in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP). The present study provides a reference for the prevention and control of FT erosion in the QTP, as well as for the protection and restoration of the regional ecological environment. FT erosion is the third major type of soil erosion after water and wind erosion. Although FT erosion is one of the major soil erosion types in cold regions, it has been studied relatively little in the past because of the complexity of several influencing factors and the involvement of shallow surface layers at certain depths. The QTP is an important ecological barrier area in China. However, this area is characterized by harsh climatic and fragile environmental conditions, as well as by frequent FT erosion events, making it necessary to conduct research on FT erosion. In this paper, a total of 11 meteorological, vegetation, topographic, geomorphological, and geological factors were selected and assigned analytic hierarchy process (AHP)-based weights to evaluate the FT erosion intensity in the QTP using a comprehensive evaluation index method. In addition, the single effects of the selected influencing factors on the FT erosion intensity were further evaluated in this study. According to the obtained results, the total FT erosion area covered 1.61 × 106 km2, accounting for 61.33% of the total area of the QTP. The moderate and strong FT erosion intensity classes covered 6.19 × 105 km2, accounting for 38.37% of the total FT erosion area in the QTP. The results revealed substantial variations in the spatial distribution of the FT erosion intensity in the QTP. Indeed, the moderate and strong erosion areas were mainly located in the high mountain areas and the hilly part of the Hoh Xil frozen soil region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coal mines' water inrush is one of the five major disasters that affect the safety of coal mine production. The assessment of coal mines' water inrush is a prerequisite for preventing and controlling coal mines' water inrush. To objectively and effectively evaluate the risk of water inrush in the coal seam roof and overcome the shortage of single assignment methods, two methods, the analytic hierarchy process and the entropy method, are used in this paper to determine each evaluation factor's subjective and objective consequences. Game theory is applied to obtain the combined weights of each influencing factor to make up for the lack of a single assignment method. Taking the roof of Coal Seam No. 7 in mining Areas I and II of Dananhu Coal Mine No. 7 as an example, six primary evaluation indexes are created to control water inrush in the coal seam roof. The comprehensive weights of each index is determined; a vulnerability index evaluation model is established; and the results of the water inrush risk zone in the coal seam roof of Dananhu Coal Mine No. 7 are obtained using the GIS spatial analysis function. The results show that the discriminatory effects of the zoning model have a high accuracy and can provide a reference basis for future coal seam mining control work in this mine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mountain railroad tunnels often need to cross deep and large active fracture zones during construction and tunnel site areas can be crisscrossed with underground water systems that carry huge volumes of water. The risk of sudden water inrush during the construction of mountain railroad tunnels is high, and uncontrolled inrush water runoff can negatively impact the tunnel site area. Therefore, risk assessments and prevention of inrush related surface runoff damage is key to reducing the ecological impact of tunnel construction. In this paper, the inrush water runoff of a typical mountainous railroad tunnel in the southwest of China was taken as the research object and the hydrological model and hierarchical analysis (AHP) were used to build a comprehensive risk assessment algorithm for surface runoff. Then the risk level of each section of the runoff channel was assessed under different flow scenarios and different inrush water runoff environmental risk prevention measures were proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ocean carriage has become a major tool for cross-border e-commerce logistics transport. The surge of the cross-border trades has made the shipping industry spring up. There are many factors affecting the marine logistics transport. How to determine the principal one among them and improve the marine transport efficiency has become the focus of the study. Based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), this paper establishes a complete shipping efficiency evaluation system for cross-border e-commerce logistics and applies it to the Qingdao Port of China for a solid evidence. The findings show that it is subjected to some factors including port loading and unloading and maritime ship efficiencies. The evaluation indicators chosen in this paper all well fit the bill for consistency test. From the analysis of the marine transport efficiency of cross-border e-commerce logistics in the Qingdao Port, it is known that the marine transport efficiency is increasing year by year, but not high on the whole. This paper provides the evidences for the application of AHP in the marine transport efficiency evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wetland is a unique natural landscape pattern, which provides a variety of important functions and services for human societies. With the rapid develop of the economy and accelerated urbanization, the inland wetlands are faced with series of problems, including reduced area, weakened wetland functions, and deterioration of the wetland ecosystem environment. Therefore, it is necessary to quantitatively assess the ecological health of China's inland wetlands, which is key to the sustainable development of ecosystems. However, most assessments of wetland ecosystems only examine single wetlands or watershed wetlands, and there are few assessments of wetland health at the national level. In this paper, based on land cover data, climate data, and social and economic data, an assessment system of inland wetland health is established by using the Pressure-State-Effect-Response (PSER) model, which includes 15 assessment indicators. Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was used to define the indicator weights. Then we assessed the ecosystem health of the inland wetlands of China in 2010 and 2018, which produced three main results. (1) Unlike ecosystem health evaluated by administrative districts, wetland ecosystem health (WEH) evaluation based on the grid could provide additional details of wetland health. (2) The area of inland wetlands increased by 16328 km2 in 2018 compared to 2010, and the average wetland ecosystem health index in 2018 was 3.45, compared to an index value of 3.24 in 2010. (3) In 2018, wetlands in the better, good, moderate and poor conditions represented about 26.3%, 46.4%, 26.9% and 0.5% of the total, respectively. These results provide a practical guide for protecting and managing wetland system resources and reliable information for land use planning and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to evaluate the financial ecological environment of scientific and technological small-medium enterprises, this paper selects index from five aspects, such as the economic environment, direct financial environment, indirect financial environment, policy environment and technological environment. By using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method, an index system of financial ecological environment evaluation for scientific and technological small-medium enterprises is built and the corresponding evaluation model is established. As a case study, with the technological support of geographic information system(GIS), the proposed approach is applied to evaluate and analyze the financial ecological environment of scientific and technological small-medium enterprises in south-central China. It is shown that the AHP approach proposed in this paper can effectively and visually evaluate the financial ecological environment of scientific and technological small-medium enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coal is the major fossil fuel used for power generation. Coal mining activities lead to environmental changes to a large extent, such as degradation in the quality of air, water, and soil, changes in landform, land use/land cover, and vegetation distribution. Evaluating the environmental quality is therefore essential to study the nature and impact of mining activities on the environment. The present study attempts to use the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to assess the environmental quality of Rujigou coalfield that lacked previous such analysis. The criteria used for evaluation were selected through a literature review and extensive field survey. A photo tour of the study area shows the current ground conditions. Weights were assigned to these criteria based on expert opinions, recommendations from published literature, and field investigation. The results indicate that mining activities in the study region most significantly impact the air quality, followed by soil, water, landform, and vegetation. The knowledge of environmental quality can forewarn policymakers and mine managers about impending environmental problems and improve their ability to manage and resolve them. Moreover, the systematic methodological process described in this research can be applied to any study area with similar features to the one investigated in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the research results and practical engineering experience pertaining to the protection and reinforcement of the cliff of the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, China, this paper presents a method that is mainly based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to evaluate the preservation state and risk of the Mogao cliff, a means that numerical simulation was conducted to quantitatively evaluate the stability and effectiveness of protective measures for the Mogao cliff, a set of reinforcement methods which integrate the key protection techniques based on propping, anchoring, grouting, and anti-weathering and the quality control measures based on assessing their effectiveness for surrounding rocks of the grottoes, and a set of methods for monitoring and warning based on risk theory throughout the entire reinforcement process. The four above-mentioned techniques complement and support with each other, and every stage is based on research. Additionally, the protection and reinforcement concepts implemented at the Mogao cliff are summarized in this paper. Finally, preventive protection and reinforcement techniques for sandy conglomerate grottoes were established based on the research, evaluation, calculation, and monitoring. The techniques presented in this paper can be used as a theoretical foundation and provide technical guidance for the protection and reinforcement of similar cultural heritage sites all over the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural tourism has become a hot spot in China's tourism development. Based on the AHP model and the comprehensive evaluation method of fuzzy cognition, this paper builds an evaluation system for the evaluation of rural tourism resources, including resource value, environmental factors, reception conditions with three criterion layers, and 25 evaluation factors. We recovered 574 valid questionnaires through two online forms and field research in Lanzhou city, and then used them to complete the empirical analysis. The results show four main aspects of the tourists' perspective on rural tourism resources. Firstly, rural tourists are concerned about higher service facilities. The evaluation of rural tourism resources pays more attention to the reception conditions, and tourists pay more attention to the facilities of the reception conditions. In addition, the reception condition value accounts for a more concentrated 8–10 points (61.4%), which is higher than environmental elements (58.87%) and the value of the resource itself (54.26%). Secondly, tourists' attention to rural tourism resources mainly focuses on the pleasurable (0.1152), tour line design (0.1014), experience (0.0765), ornamental (0.0747) and other aspects. Thirdly, the degree of cognition mainly focuses on nature (4508), environmental safety (4469), pleasantness (4387), accommodation conditions (4367), tour line design (4363) and other aspects of the rural tourism resources. Fourthly, the cognition of rural tourism resources is basically given priority with 6–9 points, and environmental factors accounted for the highest portion. However, rural tourists have higher expectations for the popularization and education of rural tourism resources, but the sense of acquisition is relatively low. Through the further improvement and improvement of the naturalness of environmental resources, environmental safety of reception conditions, and the enjoyment of external traffic and resource value, the overall benefit of rural tourism resources is maximized. The results of this study can provide reference for the theoretical foundation of rural tourism resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-intensity and large-scale resource development seriously threatens the fragile ecological environment in the red soil hilly region in southern China. This paper analyzes the eco-geological environmental problems and factors affecting Ganzhou, a mining city in the red soil hilly region, based on field survey and literature. The eco-geological environment quality (EGEQ) assessment system, which covered 11 indicators in physical geography, mining development, geological hazards, as well as water and soil pollution, was established through multi-source data utilization such as remote sensing images, DEM (Digital Elevation Model), field survey and on-site monitoring data. The comprehensive weight of each indicator was calculated through the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and entropy method. The eco-geological environment assessment map was developed by calculating the EGEQ value through the linear weighted method. The assessment results show that the EGEQ was classified into I-V grades from excellent to worse, among which, EGEQ of I-II accounted for 29.88%, EGEQ of III accounted for 32.35% and EGEQ of IV-V accounted for 37.77%; the overall EGEQ of Ganzhou was moderate. The assessment system utilized in this research provides scientific and accurate results, which in turn enable the proposal of some tangible protection suggestions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of urban decay in Hong Kong is getting worse recently; therefore, the importance of urban renewal in improving the physical environment conditions and the living standards of the citizens is widely recognized in the territory. However, it is not an easy task for the Hong Kong Government to prepare welcome urban renewal proposals because the citizens, professionals and other concerned parties have their own expectations which are difficult to be addressed all at the same time. Although it is impossible to satisfy all stakeholders concerning urban renewal, it is preferable to have proposals conforming to the interests of the majority and beneficial to the present and future generations. This paper adopts the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to work out the most sustainable design proposal for an area undergoing urban renewal. AHP is a robust multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) method for solving social, governmental and corporate decision problems. Since there is a lack of published papers demonstrating a systematic and effective way for urban renewal proposal assessment, this paper attempts to fill this gap with the help of AHP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research was based on a rare case involving an explosion accident of liquefied natural gas (LNG) bus that occurred in the second week of December 2019 in China. The author of this paper participated in the whole accident investigation process as expert. Through the nonlinear elastoplastic analysis of the bursting tank by finite element simulation, this explosion accident was caused by the rapid phase transition of residual LNG during the deicing of the frozen pipeline by water, and the human factor was the direct cause of the accident. To understand the accident causation in depth, human factors involving safety issues in the LNG vehicle maintenance operation were identified using a modified human factors analysis and classification system and the analytic hierarchy process method. Furthermore, the lessons learned, and recommendations were revealed to prevent such accidents in the field of liquefied natural gas vehicle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper aims to describe and analyse the interlibrary loan and document delivery (ILL/DD) in university libraries in Jiangsu Province, China, and to evaluate the service quality of one library as an example of how to improve. Design/methodology/approach – This paper first describes the ILL/DD of the Jiangsu Academic Library & Information System (JALIS). It then provides an analysis of the problems in JALIS ILL/DD and gives some suggestions for improvement. Finally, it evaluates the service quality of one library’s ILL/DD based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Findings – It is found that JALIS ILL/DD can be done better via small consortia and discipline centres, and that AHP can be used to evaluate the service quality of a library’s ILL/DD. Social implications – More patrons can access better service, and the work effectiveness of librarians can be improved. Originality/value – This paper is helpful to librarians interested in ILL/DD or resource sharing in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New Town construction is gaining popularity in China owing to the rapid development of urbanization. However, it is a long-term and systematic project with multiple risks, plagued by shortage of funds and narrow financing channels. Public–private partnerships (PPPs) are considered an effective mode to solve the problem of insufficient government funds and experience, and are increasingly being applied to implement infrastructure projects worldwide. Although new town construction in PPPs can relieve the government's debt pressure, private sectors still lack confidence in this approach. Therefore, from the perspective of private sectors, this study identifies 23 investment risk indicators from six aspects through a comprehensive literature review, field research, and risk assessment meeting. These six investment risk aspects include policy and legal, market, financing and design, natural, construction, and standard and contract. Then, this paper uses the project grading tool to design and score problems for 23 evaluation indicators. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method is applied to determine the weight of each risk aspect. At the end, the mixed center-point triangular whitenization weight function is used to determine the investment risk evaluation grade. The results are expected to serve as a reference and provide inspiration for the private sectors of New Town construction in PPPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A comprehensive assessment method of cropland abandonment risk based on AHP and PCA was proposed. • The verification results show that the risk assessment method proposed in our article is objective. • The high risk area is mainly distributed in the Lancang and Honghe River Basin. • Suggestions for preventing cropland abandonment are based on dominant factors of abandonment. Assessing the risk of cropland abandonment in mountainous area is essential for ensuring food security. However, the current evaluation indicator system is incomplete, and the reliability analysis of the results is lacking. This paper proposes a spatially comprehensive assessment method of cropland abandonment risk based on AHP and PCA using multi-source data of land use, abandoned cropland, administrative area, population density, GDP, cropland soil information, and climate, and applies the method to Yunnan Province in China. Firstly, 14 indicators were selected from four aspects, including social factors, farming conditions, cropland quality, and climate factors, to construct a three-layer indicator system of "target-criteria-indicator". Fuzzy membership was used to calculate the indicator layer, and then the PCA method was applied to calculate the first principal component for the criterion layer. Finally, the AHP method was used to calculate the weighted superposition of the criterion layer. The proposed method showed good reliability in the study areas. In Yunnan Province, 33.03% of cropland is at high risk of abandonment, 37.52% is at medium risk, and 29.45% is at low risk. The high risk area is mainly distributed in the Lancang River Basin and Honghe River Basin. Social factors were found to play the greatest role in the risk of cropland abandonment in Yunnan Province. Factors such as low population density, large shape coefficient of cropland, and low annual average precipitation were identified as the main drivers of cropland abandonment in this region. The research results of this paper can provide decision-making reference for preventing and controlling cropland abandonment in mountainous areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The selection of a mining method is one of the most important decisions made by mining engineers. An appropriate fully mechanized mining method is of great importance to mining design and capacity planning for thin coal seams. Therefore, the comprehensive evaluation of alternative mining methods is an important part of mining design. Several parameters should be considered in that evaluation, and the evaluation is therefore complex and must be compliant with a set of criteria. In this paper, a comprehensive method that combines two multi-criteria decision-making methods, the analytic hierarchy process and the technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution, was adopted for the evaluation. The most appropriate mining method, which involved a shearer, was then selected for panel 43101 in the Liangshuijing coal mine in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evaluation of drinking water source security in the area of large-scale urbanization is conducive to maintaining urban security and human health. A comprehensive quantitative evaluation method has been established based on TOPSIS. Twelve indicators from three aspects, water quantity, water quality, risk warning and emergency response capability, are included in the evaluation index system. The weight of these indicators are calculated by AHP. TOPSIS is used to obtain the security index in different periods, and GIS method is used to draw the spatial distribution map of security grade. The evaluation method is applied to the security evaluation of urban drinking water sources in Henan Province, China. The results show that the overall safety of drinking water sources has improved, but it is still at the "basic safety" level. The security level of each city is closely related to watershed characteristics, water resources allocation and industrial layout. The paper puts forward some suggestions to enhance the safety of urban drinking water source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dam failure constituted a considerable threat to human life and created corresponding losses. Hence, this paper proposed a quantitative vulnerability evaluation model to estimate the consequences of dam overtopping, including loss assessment and vulnerability degree calculations. A composite normalized function was applied to convert dam overtopping loss to a vulnerability degree ranging from 0 to 1. In addition, many complex factors were simplified in the loss estimation, and the thresholds of various types of losses were proposed and adapted to the national and regional conditions. Then, loss of life, economic loss, social loss and environmental loss were incorporated into the vulnerability degree model based on a comprehensive evaluation method and were further assigned weights. Finally, vulnerability degree grading criteria was divided based on three significant cut-off values, and the corresponding guidelines for vulnerability evaluation were explained in detail. The methodology was applied to Chengbihe Reservoir in China to illustrate the assessment process of flood overtopping loss and to evaluate the vulnerability degree of the area. The results indicated that (1) dam overtopping vulnerability degree of the Chengbihe Reservoir was 0.89, which was within the range of "extremely high vulnerability" and (2) countermeasures were necessary; for example, early flood warning and forecast systems must be developed for the reservoir so that people and property in flooded areas can be safely evacuated during the process of emergencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the in-depth implementation of China's "National Intellectual Property Strategy" and the continuous increase of the stock of technology-based intellectual property, assets assessment will play a greater role in the technology-based intellectual property rights. Aiming at the problems in the evaluation of this kind of rights in practice, this paper introduces the application background of the evaluation method, puts forward the basic concepts of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and its basic steps of solving problems, and uses the multi-level fuzzy comprehensive evaluation technique to construct a typical hierarchical structure model. In addition, the article designs the mathematical model of AHP, sets up the selection hierarchy of assessment method of technology-based intellectual property, which is applied to the choice of its evaluation methods, it studies the problems in evaluation result of assets assessment from the aspect of added value in the evaluation report of technology-based intellectual property, and through the experimental statistical analysis, it's found that the results of the assessment by different methods are in large gap, and the AHP can make the choice of the appraisal method of the technology-type intellectual property scientific, objective, and rational. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the promotion of agricultural ecological civilization construction in China, agricultural ecological security has received increasing attention. How to ensure agricultural ecological security has become a great concern for many scholars. As an important agricultural province in China, Hubei is of great significance to Chinese food security and agricultural sustainable development. This paper aims to establish an index system of agricultural ecological security and security classification of Hubei via Analytic Hierarchy Process and Pressure-State-Response methods. An evaluation of agricultural ecological security in Hubei, with a base of the national average value in 2015, reveals that the security degree has increased by 0.07566 from 0.90150 in 2005 to 0.97716 in 2015. Results show that agricultural ecological security in Hubei has improved but failed to reach the national average and there is still large space for improvement of the security level, considering a trend of deterioration in some indexes, such as per capita water resources, population density, per unit area pesticide load of farmland, forest coverage, grassland degradation rate and average annual precipitation. Influencing factors, especially population spatial distribution, misconduct in agricultural production, insufficient ability in agricultural natural disaster prevention, deficiency of agro-ecological technology of agricultural ecological security in Hubei are analyzed. For improvement of the degree of agricultural ecological security in Hubei, some countermeasures and suggestions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The safety condition assessment of prestressed concrete bridges is currently subject to great uncertainty due to the subjectivity of data collection and data types. This study proposes an improved evidence fusion method, improving the conventional Dempster–Shafer fusion method to reduce assessment inaccuracies caused by data uncertainty. Firstly, the uncertain analytic hierarchy process was applied to construct a three-level safety assessment model for 15 different indicators with their initial weights. Secondly, the fuzzy matter element theory was proposed to obtain basic probability assignments required for the evidence fusion. Finally, an improved evidence fusion method was proposed based on the evidence credibility and preprocessing corrections for highly conflicting evidence. In this study, a prestressed concrete bridge in eastern China was used as a case study to perform a comprehensive safety assessment and verify the effectiveness and practicality of the proposed method. The assessment results demonstrate that the improved fusion method in this study can deal with conflicting evidence better than existing fusion methods. Compared with conventional fuzzy AHP method, it has greater sensitivity to certain indicators with severe damages, which prevents those indicators from being overshadowed by other well-performing ones in the overall assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Floor water inrush represents a geohazard that can pose significant threat to safe operations for instance in coal mines in China and elsewhere. Its occurrence is controlled by many factors, and the processes are often not amenable to mathematical expressions. To evaluate the water inrush risk, the paper proposes the vulnerability index approach by coupling the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and geographic information system (GIS). The detailed procedures of using this innovative approach are shown in a case study in China (Donghuantuo Coal Mine). The powerful spatial data analysis functions of GIS was used to establish the thematic layer of each of the six factors that control the water inrush, and the contribution weights of each factor was determined with the AHP method. The established AHP evaluation model was used to determine the threshold value for each risk level with a histogram of the water inrush vulnerability index. As a result, the mine area was divided into five regions with different vulnerability levels which served as general guidelines for the mine operations. The prediction results were further corroborated with the actual mining data, and the evaluation result is satisfactory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new urbanization construction is an important initiative to promote and speed up the healthy and sustainable development of Chinese economy. It is also an important means of realizing the moderately prosperous society, socialist modernization and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Moreover, it is also an important means of solving issues related to “agriculture, farmer and rural area”. Therefore, objectively evaluating the sustainable development of each region’s urbanization, determining their developmental situations and finding out their advantages and disadvantages bring convenience for each region to formulate relevant policy guidance and point out the direction for new urbanization construction. Combining the AHP and DEA methods, this paper uses the qualitative and quantitative methods to set up the system of evaluating new urbanization’s sustainable development from the situations of economic development, the social development and the resource environment. It sets up the evaluation model, thereby forming a feasible evaluation method. This paper also carries out an empirical analysis of the data related to 16 prefecture-level cities in Anhui Province and proves this evaluation method is reasonable and valid, thereby providing a scientific basis for formulating relevant polices to promote the new urbanization’s sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Groundwater management in the Jinan Spring basin is hampered by its complex topography, overexploitation, and excessive urbanisation. This has led to springs drying up during dry seasons and a decrease in discharge in recent years. GIS and the AHP were employed to delineate groundwater potential zones using eight thematic layers: slope, geology, lineament density, topographic wetness index (TWI), rainfall, soil, drainage density, and land use/land cover (LULC). The model's accuracy was assessed by comparing the findings to basin groundwater observation well data. We found that 74% of the observations matched the projected zoning. Further validation utilising the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve gave an AUC of 0.736. According to the study, 67.31% of the land has a good GWPZ, 5.60% has a very good one, 27.07% is medium, and 0.03% is low. Heavy rains throughout the rainy season raise water levels. Dry weather lowers water levels. This study's conclusions will protect groundwater from climate change. Integrating hydrogeological data, GIS, remote sensing, and AHP approaches maximises data use, improves groundwater potential zone delineation, and promotes sustainable groundwater resource management decision making. This integrated method can help land use planners, hydrologists, and policymakers find optimal locations for water supply projects, establish groundwater management techniques, and reduce groundwater risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The building construction industry in mainland China is distinguished by one of the highest accident rates and numbers of fatalities. Therefore, risk assessment plays a significant role in preventing safety incidents and economic losses. However, traditional risk assessment methods are mainly experience-based which could introduce significant uncertainties in accident chain estimation, quantitative analysis, and handling with uncertainty. Safety accidents are difficult to estimate, which might lead to inappropriate safety-related decision making. To solve this problem, an innovative quantitative analysis strategy has been developed, generating a loss index for various accidents in the construction site, based on the Bayesian Network and Analytic Hierarchy Process solution. In this solution, the contribution rate of every risk factor to a certain accident can be calculated. Based on those, the loss index of each construction site can be calculated by inputting current risk factors in the construction site. Moreover, the real-time loss index can be estimated which can help the management team with more accurate decision making compared with the traditional approaches. With this model, the safety situation on the construction site can be clarified and the risk priority can be analyzed according to the dynamic condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zhang, Y.; Yuan, L., and Ye, T., 2020. Management innovation of marine cultural industry based on SWOT and AHP. In: Li, L. and Huang, X. (eds.), Sustainable Development in Coastal Regions: A Perspective of Environment, Economy, and Technology. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 112, pp. 199-202. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Marine cultural industry is a kind of marine civilization expenditure to meet the spiritual and material needs of the public. It is an industrialization means based on the development and utilization of marine cultural resources. Through the production of sea related cultural products, we can improve the development of sea related cultural service industry. However, there are still many problems in the development strategy of China's marine cultural industry, which will affect the output of the comprehensive strength of China's marine cultural industry. Therefore, we must innovate the management mode of marine culture industry, which requires the joint efforts of the government and enterprises. By making full use of marine resources, China's marine industry culture can actively respond to various disadvantages and threats on the basis of national strategic policies, which will drive the development mode of marine cultural industry resources. Through SWOT analysis and analytic hierarchy process, this paper analyzes the constraints of marine cultural industry, which will better to innovate the management of marine cultural industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Centralized vs. decentralized sewage treatment is one of the key issues in the planning of rural sewage treatment (RST) in China due to the country's diverse regional characteristics. There are very limited comprehensive evaluation models for selecting regionally suitable schemes and facilities, particularly for national or provisional scale planning. As a scenario-based multi-attribute decision-making (MADM) issue, this paper develops a novel RST suitability evaluation model by integrating the multi-attribute analytic hierarchy process (AHP) with the technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS). The suitability evaluation model sets up 3 small-centralized and 4 decentralized RST facilities as candidates and includes 12 evaluation indicators that cover economic cost, life cycle environmental impacts, technical features and operations management. Eight generic scenarios are classified for Chinese rural areas based on differences in three major characteristic factors, i.e., population density (PD), the economic development level (EDL), and topographic slope (TS). The universal evaluation results show that a centralized sewage treatment scheme is more suitable for areas with a high PD/high EDL/low TS, while a decentralized scheme is more suitable for areas with a low PD/low EDL/high TS. Sensitivity analysis shows that in regions with a high PD/low EDL, the indicator weight of the construction investment cost in the model has a great influence on the facility suitability ranking. However, in regions with a high PD/high EDL, the ranking is the most sensitive to the indicator weights of the global warming potential and sewage treatment effect. Furthermore, as a spatial decision issue, an RST suitability map of Hunan Province in China is produced at the county level of resolution, and the map is generally consistent with our field knowledge of several counties in Hunan Province. The presented evaluation framework can be integrated into environmental decision support systems in the future to help local and central governments, water utilities, design institutes and other stakeholders scientifically plan RST projects. [Display omitted] • A new suitability evaluation framework of rural sewage treatment (RST) facilities. • Considering life-cycle environmental impacts and regional differences on a large scale. • Optimal RST facilities for each 8 types of regions in China were selected. • A suitability zoning map of optimal RST facility was produced for Hunan Province. • It can help to develop an environmental decision support system for RST planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water quality evaluation and health risk assessment are not only the basis of environmental protection work, but also of great significance to water environment supervision and management. In this paper, the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation for water quality was improved by using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and Entropy, and a health risk assessment model based on triangular fuzzy theory was developed. The evaluation results show 5 water categories: Class-1 (n = 1, 2%), Class-2 (n = 14, 32%), Class-3 (n = 15, 34%), Class-4 (n = 8, 18%) and Class-5 (n = 6, 14%), manifesting about 67% of the phreatic water can be used for drinking purposes in the research area. The Chadha diagram provides hydrochemical facies of the phreatic water are mainly NaCl type (n = 16, 36%) and Ca–Mg–Na type (n = 15, 34%). Fluorine as non-carcinogenic factor in health risk assessment, showing moderate correlation with SO 4 2– (r = 0.54) and low correlation with Na+ (r = 0.38) in Pearson correlation analysis. The order of non-carcinogenic risk per year is as follow: Class-2, Class-3, All, Class-4 and Class-5 with the mean of 0.29, 0.51, 0.67, 0.86 and 1.55 × 10–8 for adults, 0.54, 0.95, 1.27, 1.58 and 2.89 × 10–8 for children. Compare with adults, children undertake higher health risk, in research area. Particularly, the region accepting Class-5 water supplement encounter high non-carcinogenic risk, where risk level is 2.24 and 2.28 times to the average risk level for adults and children, respectively. This paper provides insights into solving uncertainties in groundwater management and environmental protection, as well as into fuzzy logic techniques addressing pollution. • Fuzzy comprehensive evaluation for water quality was improved using AHP and Entropy. • Health risk assessment is performed with triangular fuzzy theory. • Hydrochemical processes are interpreted considering different mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Islands are special bodies of land surrounded by seawater. Many islands are facing water shortages as the demand for groundwater increases, thus, highlighting the importance and urgency of the assessment, planning, and management of island groundwater resources. To facilitate the same, the groundwater potential of the Penghu Islands in China was assessed for the first time using remote sensing (RS), geographic information system (GIS), and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Long‐term series remote sensing studies were also conducted to monitor the dynamic change in groundwater potential and to identify groundwater potential areas. In this study, the geological environment factors were normalized, and their weight was allocated based on the AHP of RS and GIS. The groundwater potential assessment (GPA) index, established using the weighted comprehensive algorithm, was used to analyse groundwater potential and demarcate groundwater potential zones. Finally, the trend in the spatio‐temporal variation of groundwater potential was analysed using long‐term series remote sensing data. The results from 2015 to 2021 showed that the Penghu Islands can be divided into five groundwater potential zones of different grades, such as 6.3%–8.1% of grade I, 22.2%–24.2% of grade II, 23%–24.4% of grade III, 19.6%–21% of grade IV, and 25.1%–25.5% of grade V. The results of the GPA were verified by comparing them with the abundance of water‐content rock formation in hydrogeologic maps, which yielded correlation coefficients of 78.3%–88.9%. Overall, the groundwater potential zones of different grades in the study area tended to be stable all year‐round, including the zones of grades I and II. The results of this study highlighted the reliability of predicting groundwater potential based on long‐term series remote sensing data and its usability to local personnel in appropriate groundwater resource planning and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the major problems of geo-engineering, landslides often influence the safety of linear engineering projects that cross mountainous areas. Therefore, when selecting suitable routes for such projects, it is important to assess their susceptibility to landslides. In this paper, we used a natural gas pipeline in the northeast of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau of China as a case study to analyze landslide susceptibility. Based on engineering geological analogy, the analytical hierarchy process, and the least-squares method, a regional landslide susceptibility assessment model was developed and was programmed using GIS ArcEngine components under the Visual Studio.NET environment. The landslide susceptibility along the Zhong-Wu natural gas pipeline from Zhongxian County to Wuhan was assessed based on this model and classified into five levels: very safe, safe, moderate, susceptible, and very susceptible. The high accuracy and prediction capability of the model were confirmed by comparing the model results with past landslide data and performing a prediction test. The results indicated that the assessment model used in this study is reliable and can be used for landslide susceptibility assessment and route selection in other areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, macro- and mesoresearches on urban morphology have started, but microscopic morphology of development zones is still a neglected area. In this paper, the GIS spatial analysis method is used to undertake empirical research to reveal the relationship between the morphological characteristics of development zones, land-use intensity, and industrial concentration. The aim is to provide a reference for development zone planning, construction, operation, and management. Results of this study reveal the following: (1) spatial distribution of industrial land in Shanghai is obviously clustered around the Big Hongqiao region; (2) although only one-third of development zones are above the average level of the whole city in land-use intensity, the disparity among development zones is still marked, especially between national-level and municipal-level development zones; (3) compactness and radial index have a strong positive correlation with the land development ratio, but local integration has a negative correlation with the index of land use intensity; (4) an incongruous trend exists between industrial concentration and the compact construction of development zones; and (5) transport accessibility is not a major factor impacting the industrial concentration of development zones in Shanghai, but a high degree of leading industrial concentration appears in those development zones with clear functional positioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the world economy has entered a "post-crisis" era and States one after another has rebound, the focus of technological competition of economic is reflected in technological competition, which directly depends on the talent competition, that is, the quality of laborer competition. From the perspective of change the mode of economic development, this paper aims at establishing a more scientific and reasonable quality index system of laborer, and computes more accurate scores of laborer quality, so that for the future, especially the policy formulation and academic research about laborer quality during the "Twelve-Five". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Typhoon disaster information is characterized by multiple sources, complexity and diversity, and different users of this content have different individual concerns. The expression methods of typhoon disaster information considered in previous research have been relatively simple, which cannot meet the personalized service needs of different users. In this paper, according to the diverse content needs of different users in distinct stages of a typhoon disaster, a typhoon disaster information expression method with a multi-user, multi-stage, multi-channel and multi-element combined mode is investigated. First, the audience and disaster stages are divided via demand analysis, and the demand content is summarized according to the users, stages, and release channels. Similar information is then integrated into the same theme, and it is also determined how information is expressed. Then, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is used to filter out the important information in each theme. The theme template is then designed according to the characteristics of particular release channels. Finally, a prototype system is developed, and Typhoon Lekima, which impacted China in 2019, is considered as a real case for analysis. The results show that the proposed method can effectively support different users to obtain disaster characteristics at distinct stages of typhoon disasters, evaluate disaster conditions, assist scientific decision-making, and enhance public awareness of risk prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecological sensitivity is one of the important indicators of regional ecological fragility, which can represent the sensitivity of ecosystems to natural environmental conditions and human activity disturbances in the region. In this study, the ecological sensitivity of land resources in the Tumen River Basin of China was quantitatively evaluated by taking 3 ecologically sensitive impact types, including the natural environment, human disturbance, and soil erosion, as evaluation criteria, and 11 ecologically sensitive factors were selected to build an evaluation system using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method, to determine the weights of the evaluation factors, combined with geographic information system (GIS) technology. The results show that: (1) Among the three types of ecological sensitivity factors, the influence of human disturbance is the most obvious, and the two factors of land use type and distance from construction land have the highest weights in the comprehensive ecological sensitivity evaluation. (2) There are no extremely sensitive areas or insensitive areas in the Tumen River Basin in China. Highly sensitive areas account for only 0.59% of the total area and are mainly concentrated in the lakes, rivers, and reservoirs in the study area. Moderately sensitive areas account for 54.12%, which are concentrated in the central part of the Tumen River Basin Slightly sensitive areas are mainly located in the mountainous areas in the north and south of the study area. (3) Among the various land resource types, the proportion of slightly sensitive areas and moderately sensitive areas of woodland is close (about 50%), while cultivated land, grassland, construction land, and bare land are mainly moderately sensitive areas (73.95%, 82.07%, 96.59%, and 78.78%), and water bodies are mostly distributed within highly sensitive areas (60.97%), and all wetlands with the smallest area are moderately sensitive. The results of the study can provide data support and a scientific basis for regional ecological protection and development planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We consider some indicators that have not been considered in previous studies, such as the impact of historical and social factors, which are very important and necessary in measuring national space exploration capabilities. • We introduce a more reasonable quantity (Equity Evaluation Index) to measure global equity, which is more objective for both stronger and weaker countries in space exploration. • The optimization model takes different aspects of the space industry into consideration (e.g., funding, technology, scientific research), providing suggestions for countries at different developing levels to take advantage of its strengths and cover its weaknesses. In this paper we introduce an equity evaluation index (EEI) to measure the global equity on asteroid mining, and present a global equity evaluation model by applying the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), entropy weight method and the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). Based on multi-objective optimization, we provide a global cooperative decision model to allocate the inputs and outputs among countries based on their strengths and demands. Furthermore, we analyze the the trends of EEI of each country under the influence of the outbreak events by using the autoregressive integrated moving average model. Our results show that among all countries with foundations in aerospace, China has the highest EEI while Russia ranks the lowest. Humans mining minerals in a cooperative manner will achieve a win-win situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Social isolation is a serious and pervasive health issue among older people, and it is difficult to identify and assess effectively. Based on a thorough and scientific evaluation index system, AHP-Fuzzy comprehensive evaluation could be a valuable technique. Objective: It is crucial to establish interventions that focus on risk factors for the prevention of social isolation in order to give a strong scientific foundation for enhancing older people's health habits. This can be achieved by using a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method to assess the risk of social isolation in older people. Methods: A hundred community members over 60 from Nanjing were selected as the evaluation subjects in China. After the element layer was split into three categories of "social risk, economic risk, and cultural risk" using the analytic hierarchy process approach, a total of 22 assessment indicators were picked to develop a risk evaluation index system. Results: The risk level of social isolation belonging to the "low risk, relatively low risk, medium risk, relatively high risk, high risk" of membership degree are respectively " 0.3392, 0.2632, 0.2257, 0.1069, 0.0650". Fuzzy comprehensive evaluation analysis showed that social relations (0.4934), monthly income (0.4654), health status (0.5960) were significant factors of social isolation risk in older people. The results showed that factors related to social risk had the most significant impact on social isolation. Conclusion: It is scientific and feasible to construct the risk evaluation index model of social isolation risk for the elderly by using AHP-Fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method. In preventing social isolation of older people in the future, we should pay attention to the impact of social and cultural factors on them, and provide practical intervention programs and references from the government, community, family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China's fourteenth five-year plan, urban regeneration has become one of the most crucial strategies for activating the existing cities. Since creating vibrant urban spaces is a critical component of urban regeneration, understanding the patterns of community vitality helps formulate reactive regeneration policies and design interventions. However, the lack of local-scale measurement criteria and data collection methods has posed significant constraints to assessing and rejuvenating community vitality. Taking Suzhou Nanhuan New Village as a study area, our research involved a comparative study approach to investigate the fundamental driving mechanism of urban vitality with the support of a theoretical model (5D theory), multi-source data input, real-time photography technologies, and statistical analysis tools (Analytic Hierarchy Process). The result shows at the community level, the original '3d' dimensions ('Density', 'Diversity', 'Design') remain key elements for forming vibrant spatial quality and functionality, and density factors matter significantly. This study intends to provide a new paradigm for small-scale community vitality assessment, verification, and regeneration by combining urban morphology with people-oriented and environmental-oriented perspectives. This research could support quantitative research on creating vibrant high-density communities in the urban regeneration process and bring insights to academics and design practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The layout of an office significantly affects human health, well-being and productivity in multi-occupancy offices, while the relationship and prioritization of various office layout factors have not been clarified. This study conducts a thorough investigation of office layout factors on occupant satisfaction. Existing pieces of literature were deconstructed and reorganized to extract five office layout factors. For a comparative investigation, an analytic hierarchy process-based online survey and a post-occupancy evaluation-based field survey focusing on academic buildings were implemented in China. The influence mechanisms in the satisfied and dissatisfied groups were explored together with the demographic differences by introducing the Kano model. The influence mechanism differences of the office layout factors between the priori and posteriori processes are emphasized. The results indicate that in academic buildings, the influence of a workstation location on satisfaction tends to be overestimated in the design stage, while the influence of space size tends to be underestimated in the design stage. Workstation orientation is a significant factor that is easily overlooked. Generally, an office layout design should focus more on ensuring the basic needs of all employees rather than creating design highlights. This study provides a new perspective to examine the gaps between actual satisfaction and expected satisfaction, and the obtained results can be directly used to guide user-centered office interior design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With rapid development and thorough application of service outsourcing industry, in high-tech innovative enterprises, business types and country category concerning undertaking of service outsourcing projects have also appeared with booming trend, the attendant risks were diverse and multiple trend, make China’s outsourcing enterprises foreign service faces new opportunities and challenges. In order to reduce the international service outsourcing project risk, this paper based on the perspective of the contractors, risk early warning model is established by using analytic hierarchy process, and in a day of service outsourcing enterprises in China to carry out empirical research, using the factor comparison between building the hierarchical model, the layers of decomposition, obtained the actual results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities located in the transitional zone between Taihang Mountains and North China plain run high flood risk in recent years, especially urban waterlogging risk. In this paper, we take Shijiazhuang, which is located in this transitional zone, as the study area and proposed a new flood risk assessment model for this specific geographical environment. Flood risk assessment indicator factors are established by using the digital elevation model (DEM), along with land cover, economic, population, and precipitation data. A min-max normalization method is used to normalize the indices. An analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method is used to determine the weight of each normalized index and the geographic information system (GIS) spatial analysis tool is adopted for calculating the risk map of flood disaster in Shijiazhuang. This risk map is consistent with the reports released by Hebei Provincial Water Conservancy Bureau and can provide reference for flood risk management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, coal-fired power plants contribute the biggest part of power generation in China. Challenges of energy conservation and emission reduction of the coal-fired power plant encountering with a rapid growth due to the rising proportion of renewable energy generation in total power generation. Energy saving power generation dispatch (ESPGD) based on power units sorting technology is a promising approach to meet the challenge. Therefore, it is crucial to establish a reasonable and feasible multi-index comprehensive evaluation (MICE) framework for assessing the performance of coal-fired power units accessed by the power grid. In this paper, a hierarchical multiple criteria evaluation system was established. Except for the typical economic and environmental indices, the evaluation system considering operational flexibility and power quality indices either. A hybrid comprehensive evaluation model was proposed to assess the unit operational performance. The model is an integration of grey relational analysis (GRA) with analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and a novel entropy-based method (abbreviate as BECC) which integrates bootstrap method and correlation coefficient (CC) into entropy principle to get the objective weight of indices. Then a case study on seven typical 600 megawatts coal-fired power units was carried out to illustrate the proposed evaluation model, and a weight sensitivity analysis was developed in addition. The results of the case study shows that unit 4 has the power generating priority over the rest ones, and unit 2 ranks last, with the lowest grey relational degree. The weight sensitivity analysis shows that the environmental factor has the biggest sensitivity coefficient. And the validation analysis of the developed BECC weight method shows that it is feasible for the MICE model, and it is stable with an ignorable uncertainty caused by the stochastic factor in the bootstrapping process. The elaborate analysis of the result reveals that it is feasible to rank power units with the proposed evaluation model. Furthermore, it is beneficial to synthesize the updated multiple criteria in optimizing the power generating priority of coal-fired power units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Scholars began studying regional collaboration in China after the Chinese government proposed to vigorously promote regional collaboration innovation capabilities. However, most previous articles about regional innovation have focused on the input and output of innovation or the economic environment, social environment, and cultural environment. In addition, methodologically articles have tended to emphasize qualitative approached. Previous research also under-emphasize the role of government in China’s experience with regional innovation as well as the networked characteristics of regional innovation systems. This article contributes to existing scholarship by proposing a novel methodological approach that uses the AHP method to analyze the innovation activities of governments, universities, research institutes, and firms, and then uses cluster analysis to analyze the four actors of each region. The paper discusses the findings using this improved analytical approach as well as the implications for future research and policy and decision-making in order to improve the performance of regional innovation systems. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The purpose of this paper is to calculate the priority of the build-up land demand of each county in Wuhan Metropolitan Area and analyze its regional difference to provide guidance for distributing the build-up land among the counties. To do so, an index system was established from three aspects such as input intensity, utility intensity and output benefits, and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was employed to calculate the priority of the build-up land demand of each county. The results show: 1) the priority of the build-up land demand is obviously different from one county to another in Wuhan Metropolitan Area, with that of the counties under the jurisdiction of Wuhan City much higher than that of the other counties; 2) the causes leading to the regional difference are significantly different between the developed counties and the underdeveloped counties, with the former of higher priority mainly due to higher intensity input and output benefit of the build-up land, and the latter of higher priority mainly due to higher utility intensity of the build-up land; 3) the utility intensity of the build-up land is low in prefecture-level city areas because of higher per capita build-up land area. So we can conclude that the priority of the build-up land demand is essential to distribute the build-up land among the counties and improve land use efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In China, natural disasters are abundant in variety, which almost contain all other disasters in the world. Compared with the three disasters, flood is the most frequent and hazard. This paper selected Typhoon “Bilis” as a case study under the method of AHP/GRD, evaluation of AHP/DEA and Interval Fuzzy Synthesize Evaluation to research the evaluation of the degree of sudden natural disasters affected. Then, we compared and analyzed the results based on the three methods above. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: At the regional collapse of geological hazard evaluation process, in the selection of evaluation factors and determination of the weight, there are subjectivity, uncertainty, and many other issues. In this paper, the Haiyuan fault belt in Ningxia Province is the study area, respectively, with D-S evidence theory and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation methods to build a collapse of geological hazard assessment model, presented Concrete evidence theoretical algorithm. The application results show that the evidence theoretical evaluation model compared to fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model is more reliable and accurate. It solved the uncertainty evaluation issues. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Electric power enterprises are one important part of pillar industries in our country. There are many factors to cause risks which might bring trouble and disaster, so that we ought to manage those risks so as to reduce and avoid those risks, therefore we need to evaluate the risks which could happen. In this paper, in order to evaluate the risks of some thermal power enterprises in East China which are belong to one power group, we use text content analysis method to analyze a lot of risk exploration reports to build risk evaluation index system and every index’ weight, then evaluate risk level for every risk factor with AHP, and discuss the risk comprehensive evaluation of enterprises. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Recently, wetland restoration has received increased attention due to multiple and valuable environmental services provided by wetlands. However, most studies have specifically focused on undertaking restoring strategies, such as improving water quality, protecting biodiversity or utilizing flood, without considering the interaction among different wetlands in a whole watershed, such as river connectivity and flow continuity. And the special effects on the restoration performance and management implications are not fully evaluated. Thus, it is needed to evaluate potential effects of wetland restoration activities in a watershed scale, in order to find suitable wetland restoration sites. This paper proposes a GIS-based multi-criteria comprehensive evaluation methodology for wetland restoration suitability evaluation, by taking upstream of the Yongdinghe River as the example. It includes three steps: criteria information extraction, criteria value assignment and normalization, and integrated evaluation. For the first step, the stream order, overland flow length, stream water quality, saturation index, hydric soil and land use were selected as the evaluation criteria. In the second step, unique value was assigned to each criterion according to their potential contribution to the restoration. And all the criteria were normalized in order to eliminate errors that may result from different dimensions. In the final step, the weight of each criterion was calculated and the integrated criterion was deduced by using the AHP method. The restoration suitability prioritization of the wetlands was classified into 5 levels: lowest, low, middle, high, highest by using the histogram segmentation method. And the evaluation accuracy was verified with the Precedence Chart Method. The statistical result shows that about 979 km2 wetlands in the overall study area has the highest suitability for restoration, accounting for 2.18% of the total area. And most of them are located in Yangyuan country, with an area of about 131.586 km2. The main types of wetlands are reservoir wetland and river wetland. They are accounting for 11.75% and 11.33% of the total area, respectively. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Information resource obtaining and application is a pivotal factor for development of regional economy. However, information is a kind of intangible resource, how to evaluate information application capability becomes a challenge issue on information management. An information comprehensive appraisal methodology based on TOPSIS and AHP was proposed in this paper, which can calculate the relative efficiency for information application. To overcome the shortcoming of TOPSIS methodology in weight allocation, AHP was used to alleviate weight for evaluation units. For testifying the methodology''s advantage trait, a case analysis for evaluating informatization level in rural of China was measured by the comprehensive appraisal methodology. By using statistic data of 30 provinces in rural informatization, the comprehensive evaluation value and ranks can be drawn, which can provide useful information to regional decision makers in China. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: With the fast build-up of Chinese foreign exchange reserves, the risk management becomes a huge problem to the Chinese central bank. In this paper we present a model which can be used to help decision makers select a suitable currency structure based on Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) that allows both the economic demand and risk control factors to be taken into account. The model presented here recommends currency allocation and identifies the most suitable percentages among USD, Euro, Pound and Japanese Yen, consistent with the needs of trade settlement, debt repayment and risk control. The results indicate that the Chinese central bank should hold diversified currencies. The model can help the central bank''s analysts to work better and will significantly improve the professionalism in the management on the foreign exchange reserves. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The ecosystem seriously degraded in the southwestern mountain region of China is very vulnerable which has a great impact on regional sustainable development. In this paper, the ecological vulnerability index (EVI) including 13 factors is established synthetically reflecting ecological sensitivity (ES), natural and social pressure (NSP), and ecological recovery capacity (ERC) based on HPA method, and five grades for each factors is classified by expert consultation including potential grad, slight grade, light grade, medial grade and heavy grade. By the means of GIS spatial analysis, cluster analysis and spatial autocorrelation analysis, the regional ecological vulnerability is deeply analyzed in regional level, county level and in grade level. The conclusion is as follows. From the regional level, the ecological condition in southwest of China is relative stable reflected by area proportion of heavy and medial grade significantly less than the area proportion of potential, slight and light grade, which is accompanied by the heavy grade of ES, EP and EVI mainly concentrated in the east-southeast of whole region and four centers with high ecological recovery capacity. From county level, 152 counties are divided into two groups with centroid cluster method whose cluster level is determined by Cubic Clustering Criterion, Pseudo T-Squared Statistic, Semi-Partial R-Squared and Pseudo F Statistics. The first zone with high EVI locates in east-southeast region including 79 counties and the second one with forest, grassland, shrub as dominant land use type rules 73 counties in the west-northwest region where the disturbance from human activity is very scare. From grade scale, the clustering trend for EVI grades is apparent presented by global Moran’ I about 0.6271 and the spatial adjacency is dominated by high-high and low-low relation significantly. From above, we can see that there exits the characteristics of regional division of ecological vulnerability in different level from west-northwest region to eastsoutheast region. So the study set a solid foundation for regional ecological restoration by applying research findings, which is obtained during the period National Key Technologies R & D Program of China during the 10th Five-Year Plan Period. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]