Suitable Site Selection for Avicennia marina Plantation in the Coastal Region of Bushehr, using Best-Worst Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Method

This study was conducted to identify suitable sites for planting Avicennia marina in Soltani Khore of the urban coast of Bushehr. The most effective criteria for Avicennia marina planting include land characteristics (i.e. land use, slope, elevation, soil electrical conductivity, soil texture, and soil type), seawater (i.e. tidal range, wave, acidity, electrical conductivity, and salinity), and climate (i.e. temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, absolute minimum and maximum temperatures) were considered. Ten soil and water samples were collected, using a systematic-random sampling network and their physicochemical variables were measured. The thematic maps of the criteria were prepared and the geographic information system was used to analyse and present spatial data. Using expert opinions and literature review, the priority of the criteria was determined by Delphi method and the criteria were weighted by the Best-Worst method (BWM). Based on the overlay of weighting criteria, using Weighted Linear Combination (WLC), suitable sites for planting and development of Avicennia marina were classified as suitable, relatively suitable and not suitable. The results showed that 24% (18.25 ha) of the total areas were suitable, 24.3% (18.5 ha) of the land was relatively suitable, and 51.8% (39.4 ha) was not suitable for planting and development of Avicennia marina species.