New Frontiers in Determining Criteria and Strategies in Rural Area Sustainable Development in Serbia: Fuzzy AHP Approach

Rural area sustainable development represents one of the main aspects of prosperity, enabling countries to strengthen their economy, improve living conditions, and create new opportunities for growth. Different criteria from the areas of economic sustainability, infrastructure and access to services, community participation and resource management, geographical location, and social sustainability were determined, and three appropriate multi-criteria decision-making methods were applied; the most significant sub-criteria for rural area development were diversification of the economy, connection with urban areas, and innovations in agriculture and tourism. Also, rankings of sub-criteria were performed, and the similarity of the rankings was checked, making the fuzzy AHP algorithms suitable for estimating the influence of factors on rural areas development. Based on the results obtained, some strategies of underdeveloped area economic growth and sustainable development were presented.