Assessment of Watershed Management Activities using Analytical Hierarchy Process and Analytical Network Process (Case study: Heidary Watershed, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province)

In this research, in order to assess the biological and mechanical measures of flood and erosion control, two sub-watersheds of Heidari Watershed located in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province with similar climatic, hydrological, edaphic, vegetation and land use conditions as representative areas were selected. To assess the conducted measures, social criteria including education, participation, income level and beneficiaries' satisfaction and technical criteria including flood control, water storage, revenue increase and vegetation enhancement were used. The relationships between criteria, sub-criteria and under consideration options were defined in ANP and AHP models. Then, pairwise questionnaires of the factors in both ANP and AHP models were provided to 30 watershed management experts in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province. The results showed that among the social sub-criteria, participation in the AHP model, and increased revenues in the ANP model, allocated more weights. Also, the flood reduction criterion has gained more weight between the technical sub-criteria, by both models AHP and ANP. Social criteria and increasing vegetation cover are important for selecting biological methods. While water storage and flood reduction are important for selecting mechanical approaches. Finally, the results showed that biological measures are preferable to flood and sediment control. The weight of biological and mechanical operations in the ANP model is 0.60 and 0.40, respectively and in the AHP model, the weights were 0.51 and 0.49, respectively.