GIS based Analytical Hierarchical Process for Ecotourism Site Suitability Assessment

Authors

  • Ainon Nisa Othman School of Geomatic Science and Natural Resources, College of Built Environment, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
  • Muhammad Ajmal A’imullah Idris School of Geomatic Science and Natural Resources, College of Built Environment, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
  • Nurhanisah Hashim School of Geomatic Science and Natural Resources, College of Built Environment, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
  • Abdul Rauf Abdul Rasam School of Geomatic Science and Natural Resources, College of Built Environment, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
  • Akhbaaruddin Abd Hamid Department of Survey and Mapping Pahang, Malaysia, Jalan Tengku Mohamed, Taman Pelindung Aman, 2505 Kuantan, Pahang

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24191/bej.v22i1.1032

Keywords:

Ecotourism, Geographical Information System (GIS), Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP)

Abstract

Ecotourism grounded in environmental conservation and cultural sensitivity and emerges as a powerful tool for promoting tourism while preserving natural and cultural heritage. Lipis district located in Pahang have faces challenges such as illegal logging, thus pushing the needs and necessitating strategic planning for ecotourism sites. The study aims to derive a site suitability map for ecotourism in Lipis district using Geographic Information System (GIS) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The objectives are to identifying key criteria influencing site suitability, developing an ecotourism model using GIS (AHP), and analysing the suitability of existing ecotourism areas. The criteria used were land use, slope, elevation, roads and proximity to infrastructure, are validated through expert opinions and past studies. The AHP calculation were done and the scoring of the criteria based on expert’s opinion. Results from the weightage shows the highest values are Land Use, Slope, Elevation, Roads and Infrastructure Proximity. The study concludes by developed a Site Suitability for Ecotourism Model (SSEM) and assessing existing ecotourism sites against the model. Results indicate that the SSEM successfully categorise areas into classes of suitability with Natural Breaks and Equal Interval classification. Overall, the district has a coverage of 9% Very High Suitability, 30% High Suitability, 33% Moderate Suitability, 22% Low Suitability, and 6% Not Suitable. Finally, the existing ecotourism sites in Lipis district align with the model's suitability classes, which mostly located around Very High Suitability and High Suitability rating area with a total value of 39% suitable area thus validating the effectiveness of the approach in site suitability assessment for ecotourism.

 

Author Biographies

Ainon Nisa Othman, School of Geomatic Science and Natural Resources, College of Built Environment, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

Ainon Nisa Othman, PhD is a senior lecturer at Centre of Geomatics Science and Natural Resources, KAB UiTM Shah Alam. She have an experiences on research about 10 years and also have supervised students more than 10 students on MSc GIS for dissertation project.  Her expertise in GIS, Remote sensing, MCDM, spatial analysis and modelling especially in disaster monitoring. She can be reached through her email at ainonnisa6941@uitm.edu.my.

Muhammad Ajmal A’imullah Idris, School of Geomatic Science and Natural Resources, College of Built Environment, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

Muhammad Ajmal A’imullah carried out the research together with Ainon Nisa Othman. Ainon Nisa Othman providing the idea, wrote, revised the article, supervised the research progress and approved the arcticle submission. Ainon Nisa Othman and Nurhanisah Hashim designed the research and also monitor the progress of the research. Abd Rauf Abd Rasam support on providing the ideas on writing the article and the methodology used for this research. Akhbaaruddin Abd Hamid are together with Ainon Nisa Othman on providing and do the collection of the data used for the research

Nurhanisah Hashim, School of Geomatic Science and Natural Resources, College of Built Environment, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

Nurhanisah Hashim, is Lecturer in the School of Geomatics and Human Resources, College of Built Environment, UiTM Shah Alam. Her main research interest is in the area of Environmental Remote sensing and GIS. She has published on these areas in several Indexed Proceedings and Journals. She can be reached through her email at nurhanisahhashim@uitm.edu.my.

Abdul Rauf Abdul Rasam, School of Geomatic Science and Natural Resources, College of Built Environment, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

Abdul Rauf Abdul Rasam, PhD, currently an Associate Professor, Coordinator of Innovation & Commercialization, CBE. His expertise on GIS Cartography, Spatial Modelling & Visualisation, Geo-Innovation,Health Society Mapping. Involved in many research especially in spatial analysis and modelling for health and collaboration with Ministry of Health in monitoring TB cases in Malaysia. He can be reached through his email at rauf@uitm.edu.my.

Akhbaaruddin Abd Hamid, Department of Survey and Mapping Pahang, Malaysia, Jalan Tengku Mohamed, Taman Pelindung Aman, 2505 Kuantan, Pahang

Sr Akhbaaruddin bin Abd Hamid is a Deputy Director of Survey I in Department of Survey and Mapping Pahang, Malaysia. Currently, he pursue his PhD in Engineerig at Universiti Malaya as part time student. He have involve in so many project related to surveying in Malaysia. He can be reached through his email at akhbar77@gmail.com

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Published

01-01-2025

How to Cite

Othman, A. N., Idris, M. A. A., Hashim, N., Abdul Rasam, A. R., & Abd Hamid, A. (2025). GIS based Analytical Hierarchical Process for Ecotourism Site Suitability Assessment. Built Environment Journal, 22(1). https://doi.org/10.24191/bej.v22i1.1032

Issue

Vol. 22 No. 1 (2025): Built Environment Journal

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Articles

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Copyright (c) 2024 Ainon Nisa Othman, Muhammad Ajmal A’imullah Idris, Abdul Rauf Abdul Rasam, Akhbaaruddin Abd Hamid

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