TECHNICAL PAPERS
Jul 1, 2005

Case Study: Application of Multicriteria Decision Making to Urban Water Supply

Publication: Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 131, Issue 4

Abstract

Presented herein is an attempt to put into practice the multicriteria decision making technique of compromise programming for a real urban water management case study in the city of Zahidan in Iran. Zahidan, the capital of Sistan and Balouchistan Province, faces serious water problems in terms of both quality and quantity. To satisfy future water demands, a long-distance water transmission project is being implemented. Compromise programming is applied to aiding decision makers in selecting the best possible alternatives for distribution of both available and the transmitted water in the city. The results obtained reveal that the method is capable of being employed by decision-makers for comprehensive urban water management studies.

Get full access to this article

View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.

Acknowledgments

The study presented in this paper was conducted at Sharif University of Technology. The writers are grateful to the reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions. The writers also thank Sistan & Balouchistan Water Company, Zahidan Water and Sewage Company, and the National Water and Sewage Company for providing valuable information and data.

References

Abrishamchi, A., and Tajrishi, M. (1997). “Multicriteria decision making in irrigation planning.” Proc., 4th Int. Conf. on Civil Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, 79–88.
Cohon, J. L., and Marks, D. H. (1975). “A review and evaluation of multi-objective programming techniques.” Water Resour. Res., 11(2), 208–220.
Corderio Netto, O., Parent, E., and Duckstein, L. (1996). “Multicriterion design of long-term water supply in Southern France.” J. Water Resour. Plan. Manage., 122(6), 403–413.
Cox, W. E. (1999). “Determining when interbasin water transfer is justified: Criteria for evaluation.” Proc., Int. Workshop on Interbasin Water Transfer, UNESCO, Paris, 173–178.
Duckstein, L., Bobee, B., and Ashkar, F. (1991). “A multiple criteria decision modeling approach to selection of estimation techniques for fitting extreme floods.” Stochastic Hydrol. Hydraul., 5(3), 227–238.
Duckstein, L., and Opricovic, S. (1980). “Multiobjective optimization in river basin development.” Water Resour. Res., 16(1), 14–20.
Duckstein, L., Treichel, W., and El Magnouni, S. (1994). “Ranking ground-water management alternatives by multicriterion analysis.” J. Water Resour. Plan. Manage., 12(4), 546–565.
Eskandari, A., Ffolliott, P., and Szidarovszky, F. (1995). “Decision support system in watershed management under uncertainty.” Proc., Regional Conf. on Water Resources Management, Isfahan, Iran, 155–164.
Freimer, M., and Yu, P. L. (1976). “Some new results on compromise solutions for group decision problems.” Manage. Sci., 22(6), 688–693.
Nachtnebel, H. P. (1994). “Comparison of multi-criterion modelling techniques and guidelines for selection.” Multicriteria decision analysis in water resources management, Janos J. Bogardi and Han-Peter Nachtnebel, eds., IHP of UNESCO, Paris, France, 203–234.
Roche, P.-A., Valiron, F., Coulomb, R., and Villessot, D. (2001). “Infrastructure integration issues.” Frontiers in urban water management, C. Maksimovic and J. A. Tejada-Guibert, eds., IWA, London, U.K., 1–36.
Simonovic, S. (1989). “Application of water resources systems concept to the formulation of a water master plan.” Water Int., 14, 37–50.
Szidarovszky, F., Gershon, M., and Duckstein, L. (1986). Techniques of multi-objective decision making in systems management, Elsevier, Amsterdam.
Tecle, A., and Duckstein, L. (1994). “Concepts of multicriterion decision making.” Multicriteria decision analysis in water resources management, Janos J. Bogardi and Han-Peter Nachtnebel, eds., IHP of UNESCO, Paris, France, 33–62.
Tecle, A., Fogel, M., and Duckstein, L. (1988). “Multicriterion selection of wastewater management alternatives.” J. Water Resour. Plan. Manage., 114(4), 383–398.
Vlachos, E., and Braga, B. (2001). “The challenge of urban water management.” Frontiers in urban water management, C. Maksimovic and J. A. Tejada-Guibert, eds., IWA, London, U.K., 1–36.
Yu, P. L., and Leitmann, G. (1976). “Compromise solutions, domination structures and Salukvadze’s solution.” Multicriteria decision making and differential games, G. Leitmann, ed., Plenum, New York, 85–101.
Zeleny, M. (1973). “Compromise programming.” Multiple criteria decision making, J. L. Cocharane and M. Zeleny, eds., University of Southern Carolina Press, Columbia, S.C., 262–301.
Zeleny, M. (1977). “Adaptive displacement of preferences in decision making.” Multiple criteria decision making, M. K. Starr and M. Zeleny, eds., North-Holland, New York, 147–157.
Zeleny, M. (1982). Multiple criteria decision making, McGraw-Hill, New York.

Information & Authors

Information

Published In

Go to Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 131Issue 4July 2005
Pages: 326 - 335

History

Received: Sep 23, 2002
Accepted: Oct 4, 2004
Published online: Jul 1, 2005
Published in print: Jul 2005

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Authors

Affiliations

Ahmad Abrishamchi [email protected]
Associate Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering and Environment and Water Research Center, Sharif Univ. of Technology, Tehran, Iran. E-mail: [email protected]
Ali Ebrahimian
Tehran Engineering and Technical Consulting Organization, P.O. Box 15875-1681, Tehran, Iran; formerly, Graduate Student, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Sharif Univ. of Technology, Tehran, Iran.
Massoud Tajrishi
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering and Environment and Water Research Center, Sharif Univ. of Technology, Tehran, Iran.
Miguel A. Mariño, Hon.M.ASCE [email protected]
Professor, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Hydrology Program, Univ. of California, Davis, CA 95616-8628. E-mail: [email protected]

Metrics & Citations

Metrics

Citations

Download citation

If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.

Cited by

View Options

Get Access

Access content

Please select your options to get access

Log in/Register Log in via your institution (Shibboleth)
ASCE Members: Please log in to see member pricing

Purchase

Save for later Information on ASCE Library Cards
ASCE Library Cards let you download journal articles, proceedings papers, and available book chapters across the entire ASCE Library platform. ASCE Library Cards remain active for 24 months or until all downloads are used. Note: This content will be debited as one download at time of checkout.

Terms of Use: ASCE Library Cards are for individual, personal use only. Reselling, republishing, or forwarding the materials to libraries or reading rooms is prohibited.
ASCE Library Card (5 downloads)
$105.00
Add to cart
ASCE Library Card (20 downloads)
$280.00
Add to cart
Buy Single Article
$35.00
Add to cart

Get Access

Access content

Please select your options to get access

Log in/Register Log in via your institution (Shibboleth)
ASCE Members: Please log in to see member pricing

Purchase

Save for later Information on ASCE Library Cards
ASCE Library Cards let you download journal articles, proceedings papers, and available book chapters across the entire ASCE Library platform. ASCE Library Cards remain active for 24 months or until all downloads are used. Note: This content will be debited as one download at time of checkout.

Terms of Use: ASCE Library Cards are for individual, personal use only. Reselling, republishing, or forwarding the materials to libraries or reading rooms is prohibited.
ASCE Library Card (5 downloads)
$105.00
Add to cart
ASCE Library Card (20 downloads)
$280.00
Add to cart
Buy Single Article
$35.00
Add to cart

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

Share

Share

Copy the content Link

Share with email

Email a colleague

Share