Integrating analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and geographical information systems (GIS) for prioritising and planning conservation choices in Wales
This paper presents an integrated geographical (‘sp atially explicit’) and multivariate approach to add ress complex planning situations for wildlife conservati on and assist decision-making. Geographic Information System (GIS) and Analytic Hierarchy Pro cess (AHP) were combined and applied to ecological and decisional variables and their assoc iati n with known occurrences of barn owls ( Tyto alba) in an area of Wales (UK). The output is presented as geographic distribution maps showing the environmental conditions that are potentially suita ble for the species and ‘heat maps’ for the benefit of decision-making process. The application of the AHP allowed a detailed understanding of how the relative importance of each variable was elicited. This is paramount to define a fully understandable framework of decision-making that can be easily rea dapted to different geographical scenarios and with different species.