Building Sustainable Ecological Barriers Through Ecosystem Synergies and Socio‐Ecological Integration

Abstract

The sustainability of ecological barriers is critical in addressing the escalating challenges of land degradation and ecosystem degradation, both of which threaten biodiversity and the socio‐ecological system. This study proposes an integrated decision‐support framework that combines fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) to systematically identify, evaluate, and prioritize the barriers hindering ecological barrier sustainability, as well as to assess effective strategies to overcome them. According to the fuzzy AHP results, financial and economic barriers emerged as the most critical, highlighting key challenges such as inadequate public funding, limited access to green finance, and substantial upfront investment requirements. Institutional and governance barriers ranked second, primarily due to fragmented policy frameworks, overlapping institutional mandates, and weak regulatory enforcement. Technical and infrastructural barriers were identified as the third most significant, driven by deficiencies in ecological monitoring systems, insufficient integration of digital technologies, and limited capacity for implementing nature‐based solutions. In parallel, the fuzzy TOPSIS analysis identified the adoption of climate‐smart and adaptive management approaches, expansion of ecological monitoring and digital tools, and integrated land use planning and zoning as the most effective strategies for overcoming these barriers.