Prioritizing environmental sensitivity criteria of mangroves using FAHP

Generally, determination of degree of coastal area environmental sensitivity is a prerequisite for assessing vulnerability of sensitive ecosystems in these areas, especially mangroves, and plays an important role in the efficiency and success of their recovery and sustainable management programs. Therefore, the aim of this study was also to determine the degree and prioritization of environmental sensitivity of mangroves of Hormozgan province. To this end, using set of criteria developed by the Marine Environment Bureau and review of studies on sensitivity of mangroves, a list of the most important criteria and sub-criteria for the sensitivity of these ecosystems was provided and the relative weight of the criteria was calculated by analyzing the opinions of experts through the implementation of the FAHP method. The results showed that according to expert's opinion, among the nine criteria for determining the degree of sensitivity of mangroves, vegetation cover and recreational significance criteria obtained the highest and lowest relative weight among the considered criteria, respectively (with relative weights equal to 0.23 and 0.03, respectively). The results also showed that the vegetation cover, wildlife and food network criteria with relative weights of 0.23, 0.17 and 0.13, were the most important sensitivity criteria of mangroves in the final rankings. The results of this study by prioritizing the environmental sensitivity criteria of mangroves of Hormozgan province, provides essential information for assessing the vulnerability of these habitats.