Multi-criteria decision support system for selecting the rainwater harvesting technique in wadi systems, Sinai, Egypt

Abstract Recently, some areas are exposed to water scarcity and floods, rainwater harvesting (RWH) is a practical solution, particularly in arid semi-arid regions. The Wadi Watier basin located South Sinai, Egypt was selected identify the appropriate RWH techniques. Five alternatives were proposed: dam with reservoir, storage pond, an underground tank, wadi bed cultivation, or Jessor system. hydrological model built using WMS software determine runoff volume at proposed sites. Multiple criteria identified classified based on their suitability degree. Then, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) used assign effective weight of each evaluation criterion. AHP revealed that slope initial cost have highest influence 20%, followed by width 15%. rainfall volume, social acceptance, revenue moderate influences weights from 8 11%. Finally, ponds tanks recorded highest-suitability evaluations sites, 65.4 62.7%, respectively. reservoir 49.3%, which considered medium suitability, while cultivation systems as low-suitability 42.7 41.7%,