Multi Criteria Decision Analysis and Modeling for Water Quality Management in a River Basin

Abstract

The present-day problems of rapid and uncontrolled growth in population, inappropriate land development projects such as stock farming, irrigation, urbanization, industrialization, and unsustainable planning and utilization of natural resources are posing a rising threat to the ecosystem of major river basins across the globe. It is an astonishing fact to notice that the situation is worse even in countries like India, where rivers are treated as sacred goddess since time immemorial. River bodies are now receivers of mammoth quantities of hazardous contaminants discharged from industrial, agricultural and domestic sectors. On the other hand, excessive withdrawals and diversions of river water to satisfy the human greed through various multi-purpose projects, barrages, wasteful irrigation, industrial expansion, and inland navigation have vastly languished the natural environmental-flows and self-assimilative capacity of the river systems. The consequences of such negative impacts on the water body are indisputably perceivable in the contemporary society, which are reflected in the form of increasing water-borne diseases such as cholera, cancer, lungs and liver damage, brain hemorrhage etc., extinction of natural habitats and some beautiful species like Royal Bengal tiger and Ganges Dolphins , climatic changes, land infertility, over-dependence on technology even at the cost of disrupting natural environment, and poverty. newlineThere is no doubt that over the last three decades, experts, researchers and governmental bodies have been quite successful in creating an awareness amongst the humans about the acute necessity of understanding the dangers of consequences of such unkind, inconsiderate and hostile over-exploitation of rivers on present as well as future generations. However, a considerable effort remains to be endorsed to develop a single pointed focus on restoration of river bodies by channelizing the academic research, governmental policies and public participation into one single and efficient decision support.