Application of Analytical Hierarchical Process and its Variants on Remote Sensing Datasets

36 Pages Posted: 8 Feb 2025

See all articles by Sarthak Arora

Sarthak Arora

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Michael Warner

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Ariel Chamberlain

affiliation not provided to SSRN

James Casey Smoot

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Nikhil Raj Deep

University of Florida

Claire Gorman

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Anthony Acciavatti

Yale University

Abstract

The river Ganga is one of the Earth’s most critically important river basins, yet it faces significant pollution challenges, making it crucial to evaluate its vulnerability for effective and targeted remediation efforts. While the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is widely regarded as the standard in decision making methodologies, uncertainties arise from its dependence on expert judgments, which can introduce subjectivity, especially when applied to remote sensing data, where expert knowledge might not fully capture spatial and spectral complexities inherent in such data. To address that, in this paper, we applied AHP alongside a suite of alternative existing and novel variants of AHP-based decision analysis on remote sensing data to assess the vulnerability of the river Ganga to pollution. We then compared the areas where the outputs of each variant may provide additional insights over AHP. Lastly, we utilized our learnings to design a composite variable to robustly define the vulnerability of the river Ganga to pollution. This approach contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of remote sensing data applications in environmental assessment, and these decision making variants can also have broader applications in other areas of environment management and sustainability, facilitating more precise and adaptable decision support frameworks.

Keywords: Analytical Hierarchical Process, Ganges, River Taxonomy, Remediation, remote sensing

Suggested Citation

Arora, Sarthak and Warner, Michael and Chamberlain, Ariel and Smoot, James Casey and Deep, Nikhil Raj and Gorman, Claire and Acciavatti, Anthony, Application of Analytical Hierarchical Process and its Variants on Remote Sensing Datasets. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5128806 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5128806

Sarthak Arora (Contact Author)

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No Address Available

Michael Warner

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No Address Available

Ariel Chamberlain

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No Address Available

James Casey Smoot

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No Address Available

Nikhil Raj Deep

University of Florida ( email )

PO Box 117165, 201 Stuzin Hall
Gainesville, FL 32610-0496
United States

Claire Gorman

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) ( email )

Anthony Acciavatti

Yale University ( email )

493 College St
New Haven, CT 06520
United States

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