This paper presents a Multi-criteria Decision Aid assessment of dairy farms
sustainability in the Entre Douro e Minho region in Portugal. Sustainability is a
multidimensional concept encompassing often conflicting economic, social and
environmental points of view, potentially involving various stakeholders and
decision makers. Seven environmental and seven socio-economic criteria were
considered, aided by experts from different fields of knowledge. We used the
multi-criteria classification method ELECTRE TRI to sort dairy farms into three
categories, where socio-economic and environment viability were studied separately.
The results were then combined to summarize the socio-economic and
environmental viability according to four categories: Highly Sustainable, Moderately
Sustainable, Marginally Sustainable and Not Sustainable. We used a Geographic
Information System for better visualization and analysis of the spatial behavior
of the classification obtained.