AUTHOR=Ma Wenbin , Du Yanlian , Zhang Kairui , Shen Yijun 

TITLE=Application of multi-criteria decision making to sustainable deep-sea mining vertical transport plans

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Marine Science

VOLUME=Volume 9 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.1009834

DOI=10.3389/fmars.2022.1009834

ISSN=2296-7745

ABSTRACT=Ever since the concept of deep-sea mining was first described, the prospect of commercially mining the deep seabed has proved to be a subject of great interest, as well as one that has remained, as yet, unrealized. Despite the considerable research and commercial attention given to developing deep-sea mining strategies, no previous study has looked explicitly at the sustainability of deep-sea mining transport plans. The objective of this paper, therefore, is to evaluate the sustainability of deep-sea mining vertical transport plans, using the methodology of fuzzy analytic network process. Major criteria for evaluating deep-sea mining vertical transport plans can be divided into technological, economic, environmental, and social components, each containing both qualitative and quantitative attributes. Weights for each criterion are determined through a questionnaire survey, completed by experts in the fields of environmental impact, policy making, marine mining, project sustainability consultancy and project economic profitability research. The research presented in this paper not only demonstrates the successful application of fuzzy analytic network process method to sustainability evaluation of deep-sea mining vertical transport plans; it also highlights that, in the future, this framework could be developed for use in deep-sea mining project assessment, through the application of a more comprehensive set of influencing parameters.