Assessment of suitable shrimp farming site selection using geographical information system based Analytical Hierarchy Process in Turkey

In the last century, the increasing global population and the demand for animal food have caused the limit of the fishing and wild harvest production capacity to be reached. In order to ensure sustainability in the fishing and wild harvest, it is necessary to focus on aquaculture activities. When it is planned to open a new aquaculture facility, the first step to be taken is to determine the most suitable establishment site. Suitable site selection affects both the success and sustainability of any aquaculture development. The aim of this study is to determine the most suitable areas to establish shrimp farming facilities in the Mediterranean Region of Turkey by using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) which are among the Multi-Criteria Decision-Making methods and Geographic Information Systems. In the first stage, analyses of airports, ports, hotels and feed mill businesses in the Mediterranean Region were conducted. Second stage study was performed on the most suitable area determined as a result of the analysis. Within the scope of this purpose, eleven sub-criteria that will affect the facility location were determined under three main criteria (land, water availability, infrastructure and socioeconomic). Constraint criteria were determined to exclude areas where shrimp farming facilities are not allowed to be established. As a result of the analysis, it was specified that 0.01% of the study area is highly suitable, 0.87% suitable, 4.69% moderately suitable and 94.43% unsuitable. This study showed that the AHP method and geographical information system techniques are applicable in the selection of suitable areas for greenhouse shrimp farming.