Multicriteria Decision Making for Water Aerodromes Allocation in Greece

Greece is a country with thousands of islands and a very extensive coastline. Naturally, such a country's morphology, as well as socio-economic reasons, created the urge to develop alternative and innovative transport systems. Seaplane is a modern, eco-friendly mode, ideal for the country’s needs, allowing effortless and quick access to/from the most distant coastal areas and islands and it can be used by residents and visitors or/and for carrying shipments. The research presented herein focuses on the development of a methodological framework for the evaluation of different areas for water aerodrome allocation, initially among different islands. Among the large spectrum of existing evaluation methods, Multicriteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) was selected. The suggested method to assign weights to the criteria is the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the evaluation of the alternative scenarios takes place with the aid of the PROMETHEE method. The suggested methodological approach is validated through a case study; the investigation of the potential connection of Thessaloniki, the second-largest city in Greece, and a transportation hub for the southeastern Europe and the Balkans, with the Cyclades.