An Analytic Hierarchy Process Approach for Prioritisation of Strategic Objectives of Sustainable Development

Zsuzsanna Szabo, Zsombor Szádoczki, Sándor Bozóki, Gabriela C. Stănciulescu and Dalma Szabo
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Sándor Bozóki: Research Group of Operations Research and Decision Systems, Research Laboratory on Engineering and Management Intelligence, Institute for Computer Science and Control (SZTAKI), Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH), 1111 Budapest, Hungary
Gabriela C. Stănciulescu: Faculty of Business and Tourism, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 010374 Bucharest, Romania
Dalma Szabo: Freelance Marketer, 90408 Nürnberg, Germany

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 4, 1-26

Abstract: Sustainability is one of the world’s fundamental objectives, and a wide variety of information types, parameters, and uncertainties need to be appraised and managed to assess it. In the present paper, Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) is used to prioritise the criteria of sustainable development based on regularly published indicators. In line with most approaches in the literature, the main criteria are Economy, Society and Environment. Complex criteria are decomposed into subcriteria until the performance with respect to them can be measured directly. Weights of importance are calculated by the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), in decision support system PriEsT. The model is flexible to both the modification of criteria and re-weighting, and the PriEsT file is supplemented to the paper. Moreover, the results can also be applied in decisions on resource allocation. The proposed methodology has the potential of resulting in a new composite index to measure, compare or rank countries and regions regarding sustainable development or one of its subcriteria, as well as to track, year by year, the improvements or the impact of the policies introduced.

Keywords: sustainable development; indicators; multi-criteria decision making; analytic hierarchy process; PriEsT (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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