Application of Fuzzy Group Decision-Making (FGDM) to Sustainable Development of Urban Water Systems

In sustainable development of urban water systems not only different economic, social, environmental and technical aspects should be taken into account, but also the priorities and preferences of all stakeholders and shareholders, including water users, service providers and other involved organizations should be considered. The complexity and multiplicity of variables that exist in a decision-making problem related to urban water systems calls for employing systematic and efficient methods, which can incorporate all criteria into a decision-making process as well as being capable of modeling uncertainties and ambiguities that lie in the problem. Fuzzy group decision-making (FGDM) methods are system analysis tools widely used for solving water resources and environmental planning and management problems. In this paper, an application of fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) method in planning for sustainable development of urban water systems is demonstrated in terms of a case study. The objective of the implemented case study is to select a sustainable development scenario for the urban water system of a hypothetical region in Tehran called “Shahrak”. Four sustainable development criteria and eleven indicators were adopted to rank six development scenarios for Shahrak’s urban water system based on expert judgments elicited from questionnaires. The final results verified by some major decision-makers show that FAHP may facilitate the decision-making process for urban water managers and decision-makers and assist achieving the objectives of sustainable development in an urban water management sector.