Sensitivity analysis of multi-criteria weights in hydrocarbon resources potential suitability evaluation using GIS

In Hydrocarbon resources exploration process several geological، geochemical، and geophysical maps are required. Furthermore، According to the capabilities of Geographic Information System، and with the widespread use of multi criteria decision making methods in GIS، this method seems a proper method for hydrocarbon resources potential suitability mapping. Also، in order to understand the behavior of the model، a GIS based multi-criteria decision making with sensitivity analysis process seems to be necessary. Therefore، in this paper، a sensitivity analysis approach is presented for measuring the dependency of the model output to input criteria weights، and identifying sensitive criteria to weight changes. The 1:25000 sheet of Ahvaz which contains great oil fields، was selected to implement the model. For this purpose، GIS data layers including Total organic carbon indicator، potential yield for hydrocarbon generation indicator، Tmax indicator، proximity to anticline axes، and presence or proximity to high residual Bouguer Gravity anomaly areas were used. The results demonstrate that presence or proximity to high residual Bouguer Gravity anomaly areas has the highest sensitivity and Tmax indicator has the lowest among all criteria. The final suitability map classified about 82 percent of the known reserves in very suitable and suitable classes in total.