Decision making to support sustainable energy policies corresponding to agriculture sector: Case study in Iran's Caspian Sea coastline.

Sustainable development programs rely on implementing energy policies in different sectors of a society. As far as agriculture sector is concerned, this paper intends to evaluate the current energy consumption and the potential for renewable energy programs' deployment in regional scale. The candidate region is Iran's Caspian Sea coastline. The assessment is modeled by recent multi-criteria decision analysis approaches, i.e. Level Based Weight Assessment (LBWA) with Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment (WASPAS). The proposed index was designed so as to cover conventional and non-conventional energy resources subjects simultaneously, for instance: (1) biomass production, and (2) natural gas and diesel fuel at state level. From methodology point of view, the traditional WASPAS method is enhanced by the integration of the Weighted Power Heronian (WPHA) and Weight Geometric Power Heronian (WGPHA) functions. Application of these functions enables the elimination of the influence of extreme and unreasonable arguments in initial decision-making matrix. In addition, the interrelations between attributes is considered in the proposed model, that is particualrely appropriate for decision making in dynamic systems. The model capability in decision making has been investigated by comprehensive sensitivity analysis that implies in Iran's Caspian Sea coastline, Mazandaran state ranks first, followed by Guilan and Golestan. The result is suitable for policy makers and regional managers to define proper plans and actions in sustainable development of Caspian Sea coastline based on both agriculture-based energy efficiency as well as bio-based energy potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]