Evaluation of an Agricultural Meteorological Disaster Based on Multiple Criterion Decision Making and Evolutionary...

Area of Science:

• Agricultural Science
• Meteorology
• Decision Science

Background:

• Meteorological disasters pose significant threats to agriculture.
• Evaluating these disasters involves complex, multi-indexed decision-making processes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a comprehensive indexing system for agricultural meteorological disasters.
• To propose a novel evaluation model integrating evolutionary algorithms and TOPSIS.
• To assess the severity of China's 2008 agricultural meteorological disaster.

Main Methods:

• A comprehensive indexing system including disaster rate, inundated rate, and complete loss rate was established.
• A novel evolutionary algorithm, combining differential evolution and evolution strategy, was developed to determine criterion weights.
• The Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) was integrated with the evolutionary algorithm for disaster evaluation.
• Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques were utilized for spatial depiction of the disaster.

Main Results:

• The proposed model effectively evaluated the 2008 agricultural meteorological disaster in China.
• The disaster was found to be particularly severe in Hunan and Hubei provinces.
• GIS mapping visually represented the spatial distribution and impact of the disaster.

Conclusions:

• The developed evaluation model provides a robust framework for assessing agricultural meteorological disasters.
• The 2008 disaster in China highlights the need for effective disaster mitigation strategies.
• Recommendations for relieving agricultural meteorological disasters were provided based on the findings.