A New Approach for Site Selection of Air Quality Monitoring Stations: Multi-Criteria Decision-Making

ABSTRACT

The main objective of this study was to choose appropriate locations for two air quality monitoring stations in an urban area in Turkey by using specific decision-making techniques. For this purpose, five different potential locations for an urban station and seven different potential locations for a rural station were evaluated according to two Multi Criteria Decision Making techniques (MCDM): Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Elimination Et Choix Traduisant la Realité III (ELECTRE III). The main inputs of these methods were the air quality levels and associated pollution hot spots estimated by an air quality dispersion model (AERMOD), and the rankings determined according to the views of experts and local authorities regarding the selection criteria. The prioritization and ranking of the alternatives were determined and compared for both methods. The results of the two methods validated each other since the same locations were determined as the best alternatives by both methods. In this study, AHP and ELECTRE III, which are two well-known MCDM techniques, were used for the first time for the selection of the optimal air quality monitoring stations using seven criteria (pollution levels, security, availability of electricity, collaborations, staff support, easy access, distance).