Selecting weighting methodologies for evaluating agricultural sustainability in Iran

The importance of sustainable development has increased in recent decades because of environmental considerations. In this regard, the current research aims to evaluate the sustainability of agricultural and natural resources in East Azerbaijan Province in Iran by using conjoint analysis. Finding an appropriate weighting methodology is one of the major challenges in measuring sustainability. Conjoint analysis (also known as choice models or experiments) presents a flexible framework which could be adopted for a variety of specific applications and allows drawing comparisons among various stakeholder groups based on how they perceive sustainability. Economic, social and environmental dimensions were considered as the aspects of sustainability, and each of them included some indicators. The relative importance of sustainability indicators is determined from the perspectives of scientists and experts. The results show that all respondents identify environmental aspects as the most important sustainability dimension; and in this dimension indicators of groundwater level, nitrate concentration in groundwater and agricultural water use have the most relative importance. The results of this study can be used to design efficient policies for sustainable management of natural resources and agricultural systems in the same conditions.