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Applications of Multi-Criteria Techniques to Solve Agrifood and Environmental Problems

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A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Science and Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2021) | Viewed by 27145

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Amparo Baviera-Puig

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Guest Editor

Department of Economics and Social Sciences, Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain
Interests: agrifood marketing; consumer behavior; retailing; CSR

Prof. Mónica García-Melón

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Guest Editor

Professor at Universitat Politecnica de València (Spain); Research fellow at INGENIO (CSIC-UPV)
Interests: multicriteria decision techniques; participatory decision making

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The development and use of new models and concepts to support decision making in agrifood and environmental problems has been increasing in recent years, with a variety of techniques being applied. Usually, decision support in these realms needs to consider different criteria to evaluate whether a solution is good. In the assessment of solution quality, different stakeholder views must often be captured; therefore, participatory decision making techniques are very useful.

Hence, this Special Issue aims to collect articles which explicitly address the mentioned issues around multi-criteria decision making in agrifood and environmental problems. Agrifood activity has always been closely linked to the environment due to its impact. If we take into account the entire agrifood chain, all the agents involved (from the raw material supplier to the consumer) can affect the environment with their decisions. The set of problems considered include climate change, sustainability, resource shortages, pollution, fertilizer, or irrigation problems, the agrifood chain, analysis of the impact of agriculture or livestock on the environment, consumer behavior towards organic or specific products, and many more.

For this Special Issue, we wish to present discussions of how multiple criteria are selected and modeled, and which approaches can be used in solving agrifood and environmental problems. Submissions should also provide insights from the practitioners’ perspective, e.g., how did the model perform, what assumptions had to be considered? Finally, we encourage authors to consider both the perspective of the facilitator as well as the decision maker.

This Special Issue “Applications of Multicriteria Techniques to Solve Agrifood and Environmental Problems” aims to publish recent advances in the development and use of models and approaches where multiple criteria are explicitly taken into account. We would like to invite both researchers and practitioners who develop and use operations research in agrifood and environmental realms to submit their work to be published in this Special Issue.

Dr. Amparo Baviera-Puig
Prof. Mónica García-Melón
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

multicriteria decision making
stakeholders
practitioners
facilitator
agrifood activity
environmental impact

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Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 473 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessment of Irrigation Water Use Efficiency in Citrus Orchards Using AHP

by Rocío Poveda-Bautista, Bernat Roig-Merino, Herminia Puerto and Juan Buitrago-Vera

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(11), 5667; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18115667 - 25 May 2021

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3156

Abstract

Irrigation water use efficiency, the small size of the orchards, and part-time farmers are major issues for Spanish citriculture. How should irrigation water use efficiency be assessed? Does irrigation water use efficiency improve when increasing the size of the orchards? Are full-time farmers more efficient in irrigation water use than part-time ones? To address these three questions, we propose to apply a new multicriteria approach based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) technique and the participation of a group of experts. A new synthetic irrigation efficiency index (IEI) was proposed and tested using data from an irrigation community (IC) and a cooperative of farmers in the East of Spain. The results showed that the size of the orchards had no relation with the IEI scoring but full-time farmers tended to have better IEI scores and, thus, were more efficient. These results were obtained from a sample of 24 orchards of oranges, navelina variety, growing in a very similar environment, and agronomical characteristics. The proposed methodology can be a useful benchmarking tool for improving the irrigation water management in other ICs taking into account the issues related to farm data sharing recorded during the case study. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Multi-Criteria Techniques to Solve Agrifood and Environmental Problems)

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17 pages, 1481 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Proposal of a New Orange Selection Process Using Sensory Panels and AHP

by Amparo Baviera-Puig, Mónica García-Melón, María Dolores Ortolá and Isabel López-Cortés

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(7), 3333; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18073333 - 24 Mar 2021

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3100

Abstract

Although the consumption of fruits and vegetables is being promoted by different institutions as a key question of public health, their consumption is decreasing and their waste is increasing. To address this situation, we propose to include the consumer’s perception of the quality (from a sensory point of view) of a fruit, in particular Valencian oranges, in the supplier’s selection process by retailers. To do so, we use a combination of consumer and trained sensory panels and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). This approach is completely novel in the literature. According to the expert panel, the most important criteria when evaluating the quality of an orange are fruity smell, juiciness, sweetness and acidity. These criteria are related to the freshness and taste of the oranges. Consumers found the methodology proposed useful and easy to develop. The application of the AHP methodology has helped to facilitate a participatory discussion among consumers on the concept of the quality of the oranges. The methodology proposed can help the agrifood sector in different ways up and down the supply chain. Specially, it can contribute to better meet consumer’s demands, increasing the consumption of fruits and vegetables and reducing its waste. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Multi-Criteria Techniques to Solve Agrifood and Environmental Problems)

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26 pages, 4177 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaluating Animal-Based Foods and Plant-Based Alternatives Using Multi-Criteria and SWOT Analyses

by Irene Blanco-Gutiérrez, Consuelo Varela-Ortega and Rhys Manners

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17(21), 7969; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17217969 - 29 Oct 2020

Cited by 27 | Viewed by 7412

Abstract

Global diets have transitioned in recent decades with animal and processed products increasing. Promoting a reversal in these trends towards plant-based diets could reduce the environmental impacts of food systems and reduce the prevalence of non-communicable diseases and malnutrition. In Spain, a reference point for the Mediterranean diet (predominantly plant-source based), plant-based alternatives to traditional animal-based products are receiving increased attention. However, limited focus has been given to the opinions of stakeholder groups on the potential of these novel products. We evaluate the opinions of stakeholders within the Spanish agri-food sector, using multicriteria and SWOT analyses, on traditional and novel food products. Stakeholders involved in the supply chain of food products (producers, processors, and distributors) were critical of novel plant-based foods, highlighting problems with their taste, processing technology, and high prices. These results contrast with the perspectives of policymakers, researchers, environmental NGOs, and consumers who see novel products more positively - healthier, more sustainable, and highly profitable. These results illustrate the more traditional mindset seen in Spanish production systems, contrasting with the rapidly shifting tastes and demands of consumers and the potential legislative orientation of policymakers. This study calls for improved understanding and collaboration between stakeholders to better manage complex choices that affect the future of food systems during their needed transformation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Multi-Criteria Techniques to Solve Agrifood and Environmental Problems)

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15 pages, 5446 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Tri-Criterion Model for Constructing Low-Carbon Mutual Fund Portfolios: A Preference-Based Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm Approach

by Adolfo Hilario-Caballero, Ana Garcia-Bernabeu, Jose Vicente Salcedo and Marisa Vercher

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17(17), 6324; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17176324 - 31 Aug 2020

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3392

Abstract

Sustainable finance, which integrates environmental, social and governance criteria on financial decisions rests on the fact that money should be used for good purposes. Thus, the financial sector is also expected to play a more important role to decarbonise the global economy. To align financial flows with a pathway towards a low-carbon economy, investors should be able to integrate into their financial decisions additional criteria beyond return and risk to manage climate risk. We propose a tri-criterion portfolio selection model to extend the classical Markowitz’s mean-variance approach to include investor’s preferences on the portfolio carbon risk exposure as an additional criterion. To approximate the 3D Pareto front we apply an efficient multi-objective genetic algorithm called ev-MOGA which is based on the concept of

ε

-dominance. Furthermore, we introduce a-posteriori approach to incorporate the investor’s preferences into the solution process regarding their climate-change related preferences measured by the carbon risk exposure and their loss-adverse attitude. We test the performance of the proposed algorithm in a cross-section of European socially responsible investments open-end funds to assess the extent to which climate-related risk could be embedded in the portfolio according to the investor’s preferences. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Multi-Criteria Techniques to Solve Agrifood and Environmental Problems)

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20 pages, 2558 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Anticipating Environmental Burdens in Research and Innovation Projects—Application to the Case of Active and Healthy Ageing

by Irene Monsonís-Payá, Tomás Gómez-Navarro and Mónica García-Melón

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17(10), 3600; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17103600 - 20 May 2020

Viewed by 2311

Abstract

In this paper; for research and innovation projects without environmental goals; a procedure is proposed to operationalize the anticipation and reflexivity of environmental concerns in the initial phases. By using the expert knowledge of specialists; we have first conducted a study to identify the general environmental topics relevant in any kind of research and innovation project not addressing the environment. In a second phase; a strategy is proposed to rank order the topics in terms of environmental relevance by means of the Analytic Hierarchy Process. To illustrate it; the case of Information and Communication Technologies for Active and Healthy Ageing is used because of its increasing importance; and because normal environmental targets are not considered. Results show that; in this case; the most relevant topic to be considered is the primary energy consumption by sources; followed by hazardous solid waste and consumption of non-renewable and scarce materials. According to the experts; these should be the main issues to be considered regarding the environmental sustainability of the outputs of such research and innovation projects. In conclusion; this paper contributes to a better understanding of how to promote a wider integration of environmental sustainability in research and innovation when environmental goals are not initially included. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Multi-Criteria Techniques to Solve Agrifood and Environmental Problems)

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20 pages, 1840 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Food Supply without Risk: Multicriteria Analysis of Institutional Conditions of Exporters

by Rosa Puertas, Luisa Marti and Jose-Maria Garcia-Alvarez-Coque

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17(10), 3432; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17103432 - 14 May 2020

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3560

Abstract

International trade in food knows no borders, hence the need for prevention systems to avoid the consumption of products that are harmful to health. This paper proposes the use of multicriteria risk prevention tools that consider the socioeconomic and institutional conditions of food exporters. We propose the use of three decision-making methods—Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to the Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), Elimination et Choix Traduisant la Realité (ELECTRE), and Cross-Efficiency (CE)—to establish a ranking of countries that export cereals to the European Union, based on structural criteria related to the detection of potential associated risks (notifications, food quality, corruption, environmental sustainability in agriculture, and logistics). In addition, the analysis examines whether the wealth and institutional capacity of supplier countries influence their position in the ranking. The research was carried out biannually over the period from 2012–2016, allowing an assessment to be made of the possible stability of the markets. The results reveal that suppliers’ rankings based exclusively on aspects related to food risk differ from importers’ actual choices determined by micro/macroeconomic features (price, production volume, and economic growth). The rankings obtained by the three proposed methods are not the same, but present certain similarities, with the ability to discern countries according to their level of food risk. The proposed methodology can be applied to support sourcing strategies. In the future, food safety considerations could have increased influence in importing decisions, which would involve further difficulties for low-income countries. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Multi-Criteria Techniques to Solve Agrifood and Environmental Problems)

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25 pages, 1881 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaluation on Early Drought Warning System in the Jinghui Channel Irrigation Area

by Shibao Lu, Yizi Shang and Hongbo Zhang

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17(1), 374; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17010374 - 6 Jan 2020

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3283

Abstract

With the economic growth, continuous global environment deterioration, and increasingly serious water resources shortage, droughts have become more and more serious and produced great impacts on both the regional ecology and sustainable economic development. This paper has established the “green, blue, yellow, orange, and red lights” as the early warning grades for agricultural droughts. By using the two influencing factors, namely precipitation and soil moisture, this paper has established the drought assessment index evaluation model using weighted coupling method. It has carried out the analogue simulation of the early drought warning based on the Jinghui Channel’s 2013 water source situations. The soil moisture in January and February is relatively ideal, and the actual early drought warning is expressed by the “green light”. The soil moisture deficit is comparatively serious in March, but the situation concerning water inflow is ideal with the “green light”. Actually, the early warning signal is basically consistent with the soil moisture drought degree between April and August. The actual early warning is expressed by the “green light” as well, but the soil moisture is not so ideal, however, this is the seeding time of the winter wheat so the lack of soil moisture has no impact on the crops output. In November and December, the winter wheat is at the growth and development stage and does not need much moisture. At this stage, the soil moisture is relatively poor. By integrating the time effects into the early drought warning system, this paper provides administrators of irrigation areas with a scientific decision-making based on the drought control measures. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Multi-Criteria Techniques to Solve Agrifood and Environmental Problems)

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