Multicriterion analysis for sustainable water resources planning: A case study in Spain

The present article demonstrates the implementation of Multicriterion Decision Making (MCDM) analysis for a case study of Flumen Monegros irrigation area in the Huesca province of Spain. The criteria used to rank alternatives consist of (1) economic factors including initial cost of irrigation system, maintenance cost, profitability of crops, extent of European subsidies; (2) environmental factors which comprise water volume, water quality after irrigation, efficiency of the use of water, resistance to floods or droughts; (3) Social factors including employment of rural labour, area non-cultivated. Alternative policies are formulated by mixing factors such as irrigation system, water pricing, water allocation, crop distribution, fertiliser use, subsidies received. Multicriterion Sorting Technique (MCST) ELECTRE-TRI is employed to reduce the large size payoff matrix to predefined categories for further usage of MCDM techniques. Five MCDM techniques, namely, PROMETHEE-2, EXPROM-2, ELECTRE-3, ELECTRE-4, and Compromise Programming (CP) are employed to rank the alternatives. Spearman rank correlation coefficient is employed to assess the correlation coefficient between the ranking patterns obtained by the above MCDM techniques. Additive ranking principle is used for group decision making analysis. Results indicate that five MCDM techniques choose the same alternative strategy as the preferred one.