GIS-based multi-criteria decision-making for ranking potential sites for centralized rainwater harvesting

Abstract

The exponential rise in population and adverse climatic conditions adversely affects safe water availability and has become a substantial issue in most countries. To combat this, Rainwater harvesting (RWH) can be a viable alternative source. This study proposes a framework for ranking potential sites to construct centralised RWH structures by integrating Geographical Information System (GIS) and multiple Multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approaches. In a study, the identified sites are compared for various predefined criteria using two objective weight methods, Criteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC) and Entropy. Furthermore, to rank the identified sites, four MCDM techniques: Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment (WASPAS); Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS); VIšekriterijumsko Kompromisno Rangiranje (VIKOR); and Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluations (PROMETHEE-II) are applied for both objective weightage methods. In addition, Sensitivity Analysis is also performed to confirm the robustness of this methodology. The results from the analysis on real-time data of the municipality ward of Jaipur city, Rajasthan, India, show that the criteria evaluated by all the applied methods provide consistent rankings for all the potential sites.