Sea use management using a hybrid operational model: Taiwan’s experience

This study proposes a hybrid operational model to manage marine activities. This approach combines cost-benefit analysis (CBA), the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), and the Dempster–Shafer theory (DST), and retains the advantages of CBA as well as facilitating the incorporation of incomplete information into the evaluation process. A particular advantage of this hybrid approach is that it can synthesize evaluation results into an easily understood unit: namely, utility. Conflicts between marine resource users (user–user conflicts) and between users and marine environment (user-environment conflicts) can easily be evaluated using this hybrid operational model. A sea use management system is proposed, which incorporates a permitting process and elements of marine spatial planning (MSP). In the proposed system, marine activities are grouped into three clusters based on their potential environmental impacts and exclusive use, then assigned to competent authorities, a panel of experts or government agencies for review and permit approval. This study suggests that the central and local governments share responsibility for approving permits for marine activities. More importantly, it suggests that the integration of marine activities needs to be handled by the central government. A numerical example is used to illustrate the application of the hybrid operational model.