Personalizing Environmental Awareness through Smartphones Using AHP and PROMETHEE II

Abstract

Environmental awareness refers to the understanding of the importance of protecting the natural environment. Digital technologies can play an important role in raising awareness of environmental issues. In view of this compelling need, this paper presents a novel way to promote environmental awareness with the use of smartphones. To achieve this, it employs personalization techniques, and specifically the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and PROMETHEE II. In more detail, the mobile application incorporates a user model that holds information, such as location (city, mountain, sea, etc.), age, interests, needs and indicators of waste management, economy of natural resources, general environmental protection, and biodiversity. At the first interaction of the user with the application, the user model is initialized; then, the system uses AHP and PROMETHEE II to provide personalized advice to users in order to help them raise their environmental awareness. The criteria, used to evaluate environmental advice, include the current location, living environment, habits, interests, needs, age, and seasonal suitability of the user. The novelty of this paper is the combination of AHP and PROMETHEE II for personalizing the environmental awareness using mobile technologies, taking into consideration the user profile as well as the surrounding area where the user is at the time that the advice is provided. The presented application has been evaluated regarding the system usefulness and environmental awareness. The findings indicate the high acceptance of this approach and its positive impact on users’ attitude and behavior with regard to reducing their environmental footprint.