Effective Water Governance by Using Group Decision Support Systems; Case Study of Lake Urmia, Iran

Limited water resources with uneven distribution in addition to the growing demands are the main challenges of the water governance in Iran. The Government has planned several water resources development project and due to their complex technical, socio-economical, and environmental outcomes, comprehensive evaluation is needed. To select more adaptive and accountable projects, suitable group decision support systems are also required. In this research four proposed routes of water transfer schemes to the critical drying Lake Urmia in Iran are evaluated with respect to the different criteria. The criteria and their weights are obtained from an organization that is responsible for major water infrastructures in the basin. By using efficient group multi-criteria decision making method, the four alternatives are ranked and the most robust water transfer route is selected. Results show the importance of using decision support systems to provide participatory and effective governance on water infrastructures.