THE APPLICATION OF ANALYTIC HIERARCHY PROCESS (AHP) FOR SELECTING COMMUNITY PROBLEMS: MULTICRITERIA DECISION-MAKING APPROACH ON ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH ASPECTS

Abstract

Addressing environmental health problems within communities necessitates an approach that considers multiple factors. A multicriteria method can identify useful decisions for carrying out alternative aspects of environmental health. This cross-sectional study illustrates the utility of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) technique, which is suitable for combining qualitative and quantitative factors across a wide area. This study aims to apply a multicriteria decision-making approach. Stakeholder opinions were collected and the Expert Choice software was utilised. The results showed that solid waste management was the most suitable alternative in addressing problems in the community, with a significance level of 34.3% (Consistency Ratio; C.R.≤ 0.1). Other alternatives were wastewater management (26.8%), air pollution management (25.3%), water consumption and quality (8.1%), and food safety and sanitation (5.6%). This study recommends the use of AHP as a crucial tool for prioritising environmental management plans to allocate resources necessary to mitigate adverse environmental health aspects within the community.