Application of AHP Model in Selection of Most Appropriate Area to Establish Soil Damp for Artificial Recharge of Underground Aquifers (Case Study: Tabas Basin)

Abstract

In recent years, water exploitation has become greater for many reasons such as population growth, industrial development, urbanization growth and consequently increased demand for food products. Hence the rate of exploitation and consumption ground water become greater than recharge of them, in other words input of ground water system is less than its output and system with negative balance sheet has positive feedback and it is collapsing. Thus it is very significant to determine the suitable position for Artificial Recharge of ground water. One of the management methods for water resources is Multi Criteria Decision Making. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is a structured technique for dealing with complex decisions that was developed by Thomas L. Saaty in the 1980 year. It provides a comprehensive and rational framework for structuring a decision problem, for representing and quantifying its elements, for relating those elements to overall goals, and for evaluating alternative solutions. The base of this model is comparing variables by pair wise by Matrix relationship.