GIS-Based multi-criteria decision making model for site selection of seaweed farming information centre: A lesson from small islands, Indonesia

Seaweed had proven to become a fisheries commodity to provide a significant multiplier economic effect for coastal community in Southeast Maluku District during 2005-2013. However, the declining on the productivity of seaweed has given a direct impact on welfare of farmers and coastal communities in this region during the recent years, due to asymmetric information on seaweed farming associated with prices, latest technology and all pre and post production activities. Thus, forming a dedicated information centre for seaweed farming in the region has become a necessity. As small island regions, in Southeast Maluku district, farmers and all stakeholder have to deal with cliché problems such as insufficient infrastructure, lack of transportation, farmers locations that spread across the islands. This paper focused on the selection of suitable location for the information centre for seaweed farming in Southeast Maluku district, Indonesia. Analytical hierarchy process (AHP), in classical and fuzzy forms, was an approach used on this study for suitability analysis. Moreover, GIS for spatial analysis in addition to AHP was used to compare the best results for the location of information centre for seaweed farmers. The results show that fuzzy AHP could provide more suitability location compared with conventional AHP. Most of suitability locations were located in three sub-districts regions and also most of them were located in Kei Kecil Island and Kei Besar Islands due to the geographical characteristics of the region. The sensitivity analysis was conducted to measure the sensitivity of the results when the weight of each criterion was changed. The outcome of this study was to serve its purpose as an input and comparison study for a recent local government of Southeast Maluku' policy on developing seaweed farming in this region