In recent years MCDM is proposed as the most useful technique of decision making where the method is entirely repeatable and objective. The use of MCDM has solved many decision-making problems.In recent years the same technique is used to solve Water Resource Management Problems. This PPT shows five such examples.

1. 5 MOST SUSTAINABLE
DECISION-MAKING
TECHNIQUES USED IN
WATER RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT
DR.MRINMOY MAJUMDER
http://www.mrinmoymajumder.com

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3. DECISION
MAKING
TECHNIQ
UES
• In scientific problems there are two types of decision-
making methods adopted for selection of many different
objectives.
• Decision Making at Discrete Space or Multi Attribute
Decision Making(MADM) Methods where there are
many solutions to a single problem.
• Some objective method is applied to select the best
solution with the help of different complex and
conflicting criteria.

4. Example of MADM
ANALYTICAL HIERARCHY PROCESS (AHP)
ANALYTICAL NETWORK PROCESS (ANP)
WEIGHTED SUM METHOD (WSM )
WEIGHTED PRODUCT METHOD (WPM)
PROMETHEE
ELEKTRE
SCAN THE CODE AND ACCESS
THE LECTURE NOTES ON MCDM

5. DECISION
MAKING
TECHNIQ
UE :
CONTD
• Another type of decision-making studies select the best
option from a continuous search space.
• This type of problems are known as Multi Objective
Decision Making(MODM) Problems.
• Here number of alternatives or solutions to a given
problems is infinite.
• The solution space is bounded by the constraints of
availability, practicality and feasibility.

6. Example of MODM
LINEAR PROGRAMMING (LP),
NON-LINEAR PROGRAMMING(NLP),
MIXED INTEGER LINEAR PROGRAMMING(MILP)
DYNAMIC PROGRAMMING,
GENETIC ALGORITHM (GA),
ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORK(ANN)
SCAN THE CODE AND ACCESS
THE COURSE ON OPTIMIZATION

7. MADM IN
WATER
RESOUR
CE
MANAGE
MENT
EXAMPLE
1
• TITLE : Mapping of flood hazard susceptibility
• METHOD USED: Evidential Belief Function (EBF),
Frequency Ratio (FR), Technique for Order Preference
by Similarity To ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and Vlse
Kriterijumsk Optimizacija Kompromisno Resenje
(VIKOR)
• LOCATION OF STUDY: Kiasar watershed, North Iran
• Research Outcome : “A comprehensive and
systematic research to identify flood-prone areas, which
may help to establish management and conservation
measures”
• Citation : Arabameri, A., K. Rezaei, A. Cerda, C.
Conoscenti and Z. Kalantari. “A comparison of
statistical methods and multi-criteria decision making to
map flood hazard susceptibility in Northern Iran.” The
Science of the total environment 660 (2019): 443-458 .

8. MODM IN
WATER
RESOUR
CE
MANAGE
MENT
EXAMPLE
2
• TITLE : Optimal management of nitrate contamination
of aquifers
• METHOD USED: Artificial Neural Networks, Genetic
Algorithm and Utility Theory
• LOCATION OF STUDY: Sumas-Blaine aquifer in
Washington State
• Research Outcome : “showed the importance of using
this integrated approach which predicts the sustainable
on-ground nitrogen loadings and provides an insight
into the economic consequences generated in
satisfying the environmental constraints.”
• Citation : Almasri, M. and J. Kaluarachchi. “Multi-
criteria decision analysis for the optimal management of
nitrate contamination of aquifers.” Journal of
environmental management 74 4 (2005): 365-81 ..

9. MODM IN
WATER
RESOUR
CE
MANAGE
MENT
EXAMPLE
3
• TITLE : A methodology for the ranking of measures that can be
implemented by a Decision Support System under various
uncertainty related to natural randomness, uncertainty in data,
models and parameters, and uncertainty about measures and
scenarios
• METHOD USED: “Monte Carlo uncertainty analysis employing Latin
Hypercube Sampling and a ranking procedure based on the
significance of the difference between output distributions for
different measures. The significance is determined with the Student
test for Gaussian distributions and with the non-parametric
Wilcoxon test for non-Gaussian distributions”
• LOCATION OF STUDY: Red River basin in Vietnam and China
• Research Outcome : “The construction of a retention basin
significantly reduces flood damage in the Red River basin, while
dike heightening and reforestation reduce flood damage, but not
significantly..”
• Citation : Kort, I. D. and M. J. Booij. “Decision making under
uncertainty in a decision support system for the Red
River.” Environ. Model. Softw. 22 (2007): 128-136..

10. MADM IN
WATER
RESOUR
CE
MANAGE
MENT
EXAMPLE
4
• TITLE : Remote Sensing and GIS Based Groundwater
Potential & Recharge Zones Mapping
• METHOD USED: “Analytical Hierarchical Process
(AHP)”
• LOCATION OF STUDY: Loni and Morahi watersheds,
Unnao and Rae Bareli district, Uttar Pradesh, India
• Research Outcome : “It discriminates the areas where
the terrain is suitable for groundwater storage and
completely unsuitable for the recharge.
• Citation :Agarwal, R. and P. Garg. “Remote Sensing
and GIS Based Groundwater Potential & Recharge
Zones Mapping Using Multi-Criteria Decision Making
Technique.” Water Resources Management 30 (2015):
243-260...

11. MODM IN
WATER
RESOUR
CE
MANAGE
MENT
EXAMPLE
5
• TITLE : Watershed Prioritization
• METHOD USED: “Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) based
SYI model (AHPSYI) under GIS environment“
• LOCATION OF STUDY: Mayurakshi watershed in India
• Research Outcome : “Information of Potential Erosion
Index (PEI) and Sediment Delivery Ratio (SDR), indicative
of transport capacity.” and uses the same to prioritize the
watersheds. “Around 100 micro-watersheds out of 276
watersheds are prioritized and found to be classified under
“moderate to very high category respectively, signifying the
need for watershed management”.
• Citation : Chowdary, V., Chakraborthy, D., Jeyaram, A.,
Murthy, Y.K., Sharma, J.R., & Dadhwal, V.K. (2013). Multi-
Criteria Decision Making Approach for Watershed
Prioritization Using Analytic Hierarchy Process Technique
and GIS. Water Resources Management, 27, 3555-3571.

12. CONCLUSION
• After surveying various literature, it was found that only 18500 results were found where MADM and/or
MODM was used for decision making in papers related to “Water Resource Management”
• Most cited five papers were selected and depicted in this short presentation. The review papers were
neglected and only those papers which show real life applications of MCDM techniques were included.
• Although, maximum number of citations were found to be for the review papers only. The Maximum
Citation Count among such types of papers is found to be equal to 150 .
• The maximum citation among all water resource management papers where MCDM is used to solve a
real-life problem is 94.
• This paper used MCDM and GIS to identify groundwater potential and recharge zones in the Loni and
Morahi watersheds of Uttar Pradesh, India.
• Their success in the application of MCDM in a real-life problems will further encourage the implementation
of such techniques in significant and contemporary studies that can also show the path to socio-economic
sustainability with the help of natural resources.
• Among all the studies in Water Resource Management, Mapping Flood Hazard and identification of
recharge zone of groundwater are the most popular objective where MCDM techniques are used.
• There are many other well-known application of MCDM on Water Resource Management.
• Here is the link to know about the same :
https://www.semanticscholar.org/me/feeds/17924/recommendations

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