Evaluation of River Water Transfer Alternatives with the TODIM Multi-Criteria Decision Making Method

Parisa-Sadat Ashofteh (), Parvin Golfam () and Hugo A. Loáiciga ()
Additional contact information
Parisa-Sadat Ashofteh: University of Qom
Parvin Golfam: University of Qom
Hugo A. Loáiciga: University of California

Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), 2020, vol. 34, issue 15, No 18, 4847-4863

Abstract: Abstract Access to water as the core of sustainable development is essential for the socio-economic development of any region. Water security is challenging, especially in arid and semi-arid regions such as Iran, where changes in the temporal distribution of precipitation contribute to the inherent shortage of water resources. Therefore, it is necessary to choose strategies that can advance this heterogeneous distribution towards balance. One of these strategies consists of inter-basin water transfers. This work presents a methodology for selecting the best alternative for river-water transfer relying on multi-criteria decision making. The method is evaluated in the Khodaafarin irrigation network (Ardabil province, Iran). Environmental, economic, technical, and socio-cultural criteria and related sub-criteria are weighted with Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). The multi-criteria decision making method (TODIM) is applied to rank the management alternatives. The results of the AHP model show that the sub-criterion of investment costs with a weight of 0.264 is the most effective criterion for choosing the most suitable water-transfer alternative. Also, the results of the TODIM decision-making method indicate the best-ranked alternative consists of water transfer through an existing earthen canal to a pumping lift station, construction of the pumping station at 0 + 400 km, and water conveyance by a concrete canal, with dominance degree of −13.72. The second-best alternative (i.e. water transfer to the pumping station by gravity pipe, construction of the pumping station, and water conveyance by concrete canal) has a dominance degree of −15.54.

Keywords: TODIM multi-criteria decision making method; AHP weighting method; Water transfer; Sustainable water resources management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11269-020-02694-2 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:waterr:v:34:y:2020:i:15:d:10.1007_s11269-020-02694-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11269

DOI: 10.1007/s11269-020-02694-2

Access Statistics for this article

Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA) is currently edited by G. Tsakiris

More articles in Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA) from Springer, European Water Resources Association (EWRA)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().