A Web-based geo-marketing decision support system for land selection: a case study of Tehran, Iran

ABSTRACT Finding an appropriate vacant lot to buy is one of the most important land marketing problems in Tehran, Iran. Typically, the land selection and purchase processes in Tehran city are based on face-to-face meetings. Despite the face-to-face land sale and purchase strategies, a few online geo-marketing or real-estate websites have been developed. However, these geo-marketing real-estate web services have two main limitations. The services have focused on simple searches and selections from a set of predefined land parcels according to some basic criteria, such as land price, area etc. They do not consider spatially explicit criteria and spatial analyses relevant to a land selection process (e.g. proximity to transportation stations). The services are lacking a proper scientific foundation for spatial multi-criteria selection of land parcels. Moreover, the alternative land parcels are dynamically created by new sellers. However, the services are hard-coded based on a set of predefined land parcels and fail to support evaluation of the parcels added by new owners. To overcome these limitations, the study proposes a geo-marketing decision support system by integrating geographic information system (GIS) and multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) techniques into the web platform. The GIS-based MCDA tools provide appropriate analytical approaches and platforms to support decision makers/people in spatial decision-making processes based on individual values and interests. The paper demonstrates the implementation of a geo-marketing decision support system for land selection and purchase processes in district no. 22 of Tehran