Multi-Criterion Decision-Making Tools for Wastewater Planning Management

Wastewater planning management is a complex problem involving agricultural, rural and industrial interests. In countries facing rapid population growth, identifying methods that can allow them to take good decisions among several competitive alternatives is of utmost importance. The purpose of this paper is to present a methodology for a wastewater planning management system using a Multi-criterion Decision-making (MCDM) method based on utility function. It allows one to take into account a multiple conflicting multi criterion context in terms of objective specification, criteria, criterion scales and construction of a payoff matrix that consists of the alternative versus criteria array. These objectives deal with groundwater protection, effluent quality, wastewater reuse, system reliability and resources needed. A number of wastewater treatment techniques are presented as alternative action plans from which the most satisfying alternative is to be chosen. In order to select on appropriate management scheme, we propose to use the UTA (Utility Additive) method. This method is interactive and permits the decision maker (DM) to select the best solution according to his viewpoint . The UTA method proceeds in two steps: the assessment of optimal utility using piecewise linear programming techniques and sensitive analysis using a post optimal procedure. An application of UTA method in wastewater planning management system is presented for the first time and some extensions of the method are discussed.