Abstract
The solutions to deal with the water crisis are summarized into two strategies for managing water resources and extraction of new sources of water. In Iran, due to geographical and climatic conditions, water resources management has a high priority. One of the methods to control and store water in wet periods for using in dry periods is construction of underground dams. The most important problem in the development and creation of underground dams is the complexity of determining suitable areas for the dams. The study area has been confronted with critical water condition due to improper temporal and spatial distribution of rainfall, uncontrolled abstraction of groundwater, drop in groundwater level and interference of saline and fresh water. Therefore, the construction of underground dams can be a practical solution to prevent groundwater levels from falling, land use change, and gradual groundwater salinity. The present study was conducted to find the underground dams using Boolean logic and for priority of underground dam sites using MCDM methods including AHP, ANP, VIKOR, TOPSIS and ELECTRE III in four counties of Bushehr, Tangestan, Dashti, and Jam in southern Iran. The results obtained by Boolean logic showed that the 305 km2 of the studied site has potential for underground dam construction. In the next step, according to Google Earth images and based on different indices including axial length, reservoir, lithology and distance from village and roads, 23 potential axes were identified afterward, by extensive field surveys. Among these 23 potential axes, 6 locations were identified as suitable. To prioritize these six areas, the MCDM models were used. Finally, the results of the MCDM models showed that the sites have different ranks of 1–6 for constructing underground dams. Based on the rank from the Copeland method, Zayer Abbasi and Faghih Hasenan sites achieved the first and the last (sixth) priority, respectively.
Highlights
One of the most important parts of Iran is arid and semi-arid regions
The results showed that the Analytical Hierarch Process (AHP) method has more capability than the Factor Interaction Method (FIM) in site selection of underground dams
The results indicate that the highest percentage of land use (Fige. 8) for constructing the underground dam is related to the use of degraded forests, grassland, and the best geological formation (Fig. 9) is related to the quaternary formation
Summary
One of the most important parts of Iran is arid and semi-arid regions. The average rainfall in Iran is less than onethird of the average rainfall in the world (Nayebi et al 2016). Underground dams are structures that have the ability to block water under the surface, to divert water from adjacent aquifers, and high groundwater level (Telmer and Best 2004; Freitas et al 2011; Cantalice et al 2016; Jamali et al 2018; Lima et al 2018; Dortaj et al 2019). The results showed that groundwater was significantly increased after the construction of sand dams
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
