Developing an Interactive Spatial Multi-Attribute Decision Support System for Assessing Water Resources Allocation Scenarios

In water resource management, assessing water resource allocation scenarios (WRASs) is an important multi-attribute decision making (MADM) problem. It involves spatially varied indicators, which interact with each other and impacts of the scenarios. These attributes are often simplified by using conventional Decision Support Systems (DSSs). In present research, a novel interactive spatial DSS for assessment of WRASs was developed. Effects of indicators type, decision matrix structures, and MADM models on priorities and ranks of scenarios were investigated in Aras basin. Sensitivity analysis of results showed that the interactive structure, comprising spatially distributed indicators and analytical network process (SANP), was the most stable model in terms of ranking. Providing more realistic results, the developed SDSS can be applied in other basins or for other MADM problems.