IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/waterr/v29y2015i8p2987-3013.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainability Evaluation of Surface Water Quality Management Options in Developing Countries: Multicriteria Analysis Using Fuzzy UTASTAR Method

Author

Listed:
  • Husnain Haider
  • Pushpinder Singh
  • Waris Ali
  • Solomon Tesfamariam
  • Rehan Sadiq

Abstract

The natural rivers in developing countries have not been meeting their desirable water quality objectives due to discharge of untreated wastewater from domestic and industrial sources for a long time; and thus need to implement rational water quality management (WQM) plans. Overall sustainability of proposed WQM options should not be overlooked during the planning phase due to lack or absence of data. In this research, a framework is proposed for the evaluation of different WQM options to meet the water quality objectives of natural rivers. Five main sustainability criteria (SSC) are considered, including cost (capital, land and operational), land requirements, operation and maintenance issues, environmental impacts, and socio-economic impacts. In addition, several sub-criteria (impacts) have also been included to rationally justify the assessment of SSC by the decision makers (DM). The values of cost and land requirement criteria are calculated; whereas, the other SSC are subjective in nature. However, both types possess uncertainties associated with calculation errors, inherent assumptions, and the differences in DM’s opinions. Further, due to data limitations in developing countries, the ranking order of WQM options established by the DM should be preferred. To deal with such uncertainties and the DM preferences, the Fuzzy UTASTAR multicriteria analysis method (based on linear programing) has been used for sustainability evaluation. To appraise the practicality of the proposed framework, it has been applied to the WQM of the Ravi River in Pakistan. The minimal difference between the DM’s top ranked options affirms the effectiveness of the proposed framework. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Husnain Haider & Pushpinder Singh & Waris Ali & Solomon Tesfamariam & Rehan Sadiq, 2015. "Sustainability Evaluation of Surface Water Quality Management Options in Developing Countries: Multicriteria Analysis Using Fuzzy UTASTAR Method," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 29(8), pages 2987-3013, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:waterr:v:29:y:2015:i:8:p:2987-3013
    DOI: 10.1007/s11269-015-0982-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11269-015-0982-2
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11269-015-0982-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yeonjoo Kim & Eun-Sung Chung & Sang-Mook Jun, 2015. "Iterative Framework for Robust Reclaimed Wastewater Allocation in a Changing Environment Using Multi-Criteria Decision Making," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 29(2), pages 295-311, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Husnain Haider & Mohammed AlHetari & Abdul Razzaq Ghumman & Ibrahim Saleh Al-Salamah & Hussein Thabit & Md. Shafiquzzaman, 2021. "Continuous Performance Improvement Framework for Sustainable Wastewater Treatment Facilities in Arid Regions: Case of Wadi Rumah in Qassim, Saudi Arabia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-24, June.
    2. V. Gholami & M. R. Khaleghi & S. Pirasteh & Martijn J. Booij, 2022. "Comparison of Self-Organizing Map, Artificial Neural Network, and Co-Active Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System Methods in Simulating Groundwater Quality: Geospatial Artificial Intelligence," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 36(2), pages 451-469, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Arash Malekian & Ali Azarnivand, 2016. "Application of Integrated Shannon’s Entropy and VIKOR Techniques in Prioritization of Flood Risk in the Shemshak Watershed, Iran," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 30(1), pages 409-425, January.
    2. Yohannes Hagos Subagadis & Niels Schütze & Jens Grundmann, 2016. "A Fuzzy-Stochastic Modeling Approach for Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis of Coupled Groundwater-Agricultural Systems," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 30(6), pages 2075-2095, April.
    3. Arash Malekian & Ali Azarnivand, 2016. "Application of Integrated Shannon’s Entropy and VIKOR Techniques in Prioritization of Flood Risk in the Shemshak Watershed, Iran," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 30(1), pages 409-425, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:waterr:v:29:y:2015:i:8:p:2987-3013. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.