ANALYSIS OF MARINE HEALTH PERFORMANCES BY CRITIC-BASED MARCOS METHOD: THE CASE OF MEDITERRANEAN COUNTRIES

Abstract

Due to the high population of the Mediterranean basin and being geographically an important transit point for transfers between countries, the marine health situation of the Mediterranean has reached a sensitive level. In this context, the analysis of the marine health performances of the Mediterranean countries is of great importance, since the activities of the countries with a coast on the Mediterranean on marine health will affect the marine health performances and situations of other Mediterranean countries, since the Mediterranean is a semi-enclosed basin. In this context, in the research, the marine health performances of 19 Mediterranean countries for the year 2021, over the values of the Ocean Health Index (OHI) components, were measured with the CRITIC-based MARCOS multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) method. According to the findings, it has been determined that the most important marine health component according to the countries within the scope of the CTIRIC method is "Livelihoods and Economies". In addition, within the scope of the findings, it was observed that the three countries with the highest marine health performance according to the CRITIC-based MARCOS method were Slovenia, Spain and France, while the three countries with the lowest were Syria, Israel and Libya. Apart from these, the average marine health performance of the countries was measured according to the CRITIC-based MARCOS method in the study, and it was concluded that the countries with a lower value than the average should increase their marine health performance in order to improve the marine health of the Mediterranean. In terms of the method, it has been evaluated that the marine health performances of the countries can be measured with the CRITIC-based MARCOS method and the CRITIC-based ARAS, EDAS, COPRAS and TOPSIS MCDM methods within the scope of OHI.