Comparative assessment of urban plants carbon sink and storage estimation methods: an integrated AHP-fuzzy...

Amid rapid urbanization, urban plants measurably contribute to climate change mitigation by carbon sink and storage, rather than constituting a singular dominant solution. This necessitates a robust, standardized framework for method evaluation and selection. This study adopts the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation as its methodological core, developing a multi-level evaluation model with 9 specific indicators based on 3 primary criteria: Accuracy, Generality, and Advancement. The model was applied to systematically compare and comprehensively assess 8 prevalent methods used to estimate urban plants' carbon sink and storage. Consistency checks (CR < 0.10) for all judgment matrices confirmed the statistical robustness of the evaluation data. The results revealed that among the evaluation criteria, Advancement carried the highest weight (52.00%), highlighting the importance of methodological innovation in the face of rapid technological progress. Accuracy ranked second (28.90%), while Generality was assigned the lowest weight (19.10%). In terms of comprehensive performance scores, the Optical Remote Sensing Method (Score: 97/100) outperformed others in carbon sink estimation. Similarly, the Remote Sensing Estimation Method (Score: 82/100) led the field in carbon storage measurement. In contrast, the Average Biomass Method received the lowest score (48/100), indicating significant performance disparities in addressing urban environmental complexity.