A multi-criteria spatial analysis using GIS to evaluate potential sites for a new border gate on Turkey's Syria frontier

After the internal disturbance in Syria in 2011, many Syrian refugees migrated to Turkey progressively, and the Turkish Government provided humanitarian aid to people in Syria. These incidents caused a huge amount of density on current border gates. Also, increasing potential terrorist attacks and growing frontier infringements also create a need for a new border gate on Turkey's Syria frontier. Thus, a four-step hybrid solution approach is developed for this problem. This approach starts with determination of selection criteria; then, the spatial database of these criteria is created by using a geographical information system. In the third step, the DEMATEL technique is applied to assign importance levels to the criteria. Lastly, MULTIMOORA technique is used to rank the potential sites. The results indicate that, recommended potential sites are more suitable than current border gates. This paper can serve as a scientific-base while selecting the optimal site for border gates. [Received: 8 February 2019; Revised: 1 July 2019; Accepted: 7 August 2019]