Title: A fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making methodology to optimise olive agro-engineering processes based on geo-spatial technologies

Authors: G. La Scalia; F.P. Marra; J. Rühl; R. Sciortino; T. Caruso

Addresses: Dipartimento di Ingegneria Chimica, Informatica, Gestionale, Meccanica, Università di Palermo, Scuola Politecnica, Viale delle scienze Ed. 8, 90128 Palermo, Italy ' Dipartimento Scienze Agrarie e Forestali, Università di Palermo, Scuola Politecnica, Viale delle Scienze Ed. 4, 90128 Palermo, Italy ' Dipartimento Scienze Agrarie e Forestali, Università di Palermo, Scuola Politecnica, Viale delle Scienze Ed. 4, 90128 Palermo, Italy ' Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Ambientale, Aerospaziale, dei Materiali, settore Geomotica, Università di Palermo, Scuola Politecnica, Viale delle Scienze Ed. 8, 90128 Palermo, Italy ' Dipartimento Scienze Agrarie e Forestali, Università di Palermo, Scuola Politecnica, Viale delle Scienze Ed. 4, 90128 Palermo, Italy

Abstract: In southern Italy, the olive oil sector is an important part of the primary sector and its development requires support from research to ensure its sustainability. This work proposes the first step for set up a decision support system (DSS) for establishing mechanisation in agricultural operations for different olive groves. To contribute to this goal researches have been carried out to test the ability of remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS) to map olive groves and their agronomic characteristics. In detail, this study aimed to classify olives grove areas in terms of agronomic suitability and detect horticultural characteristics of olive groves in order to develop a fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making method for managing mechanical harvesting and pruning. The detection and interpretation of horticultural traits was conducted on two different olive groves areas of Sicily. Results demonstrate that fuzzy technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution can be a useful decision-making tool combined with the automatable methodology for data acquisition.

Keywords: agricultural management; fuzzy TOPSIS; geographic information systems; GIS; olive groves; remote sensing; fuzzy MCDM; multicriteria decision making; agro-engineering; agriculture; geo-spatial technology; Italy; olive oil; olive grove mapping; mechanical harvesting; mechanical pruning; horticultural traits; Sicily.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMDM.2016.076834

International Journal of Management and Decision Making, 2016 Vol.15 No.1, pp.1 - 15

Received: 09 Jul 2015
Accepted: 30 Oct 2015
Published online: 01 Jun 2016 *

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