Determination and prioritization of alternative water resources wi̇th multiple criteria decision analysis methods for sustainable urban water management

The need for water demand is increasing with the changing climate, global warming, increasing population and urbanization. In addition, excessive consumption of water resources and increasing pollution rates in water resources threaten the sustainability of water. It is very important to plan water management not only in terms of quantity but also in terms of quality and ecosystem balance. Therefore, all risks should be considered and water resources should be planned accordingly for sustainable urban water management. In this context, identifying and prioritizing alternative water resources is of great importance. This study aims to evaluate and prioritize water resource alternatives for sustainable urban water management using multi-criteria decision-making methods. Malatya province central water supply and distribution system was selected as the application area. A total of 22 water source alternatives and 14 evaluation criteria were defined. In the first step of the study, the weights of the criteria were determined separately by the Best Worst (BWM) and ENTROPI methods. The VIKOR and MOORA methods, which are multi-criteria decision-making methods (MCDM), were used to determine the priority order of the alternatives based on the weights. The Water Resource Flow Rate, the Current Need Flow Meeting Rate and the Future Need Flow Meeting Rate were determined as the most important criteria with equal weight values of 0.248. According to the results obtained with the BWM Method, the Water Resource Flow Rate was defined as the most important criterion with a weight coefficient of 0.1379. Additionally, the Future Needs Flow Meeting Rate ranks second with a value of 0.1242, and Water Resource Continuity ranks third with a value of 0.0973. The most important criteria obtained from the ENTROPY method are largely similar to the results obtained from the BWM Method. The results revealed that the flow rate of the resource, the rate of meeting current and future needs and the initial investment cost criteria were the most effective criteria. The primary water source alternative was determined to be the Euphrates Branch feeding the Karakaya Dam according to the analysis made with the entropy-based VIKOR Method. On the other hand, the worst performing alternative is the Şilan Dam on the Şiro Stream. The priority alternative is the Euphrates Branch, which feeds the Karakaya Dam, and the last alternative is the Şilan Dam on the Şiro Stream according to the results of the Entropy-based MOORA Method. It is also very important that the alternatives between the best and the worst alternative have a similar ranking in both methods. In the BWM-based VIKOR and BWM-based MOORA analysis, the primary water source alternative was determined to be the Euphrates Branch, which feeds the Karakaya Dam. The last alternative in the BWM-based VIKOR and MOORA analysis is the Şilan Dam on the Şiro Stream. The Euphrates Branch alternative feeding the Karakaya Dam has a flow rate of 900 m3/s and is a continuous source. Therefore, it took first place by showing the best performance among these twenty-four criteria. Since there is a dam on this source, there is no need for an extra reservoir structure, which provides a significant advantage. This study supports comprehensive strategic decision-making in water management. It also paves the way for the development of sustainability-focused analyses for future studies.