Regional Water Resources Security Evaluation Based on a Hybrid Fuzzy BWM-TOPSIS Method.

Yan Tu,Huayi Wang,Kai Chen,Zongmin Li

doi:10.3390/ijerph17144987

Abstract

Nowadays, water resource security is becoming increasingly prominent, and this problem is a primary bottleneck restricting China’s future sustainable development. It is difficult to come to a unified conclusion on water resources security, and applications of highly feasible evaluation methods are lacking in practice. In this paper, a novel evaluation methodology is proposed for regional water resources security evaluation. First, water security is divided into two aspects: water quantity security and water quality security. The disposal rate of harmless household garbage, the excellent water resources proportion, and the functional water body loss proportion are creatively considered as indicators of water quality security in the evaluation system. In addition, a Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method is used to evaluate the water security levels in different regions. For distinguishing the importance of different indicators, a Best–Worst Method (BWM) is employed to calculate the indicator weights, as triangular fuzzy linguistic sets can more flexibly describe the preferences of decision makers (DMs) regarding the indicators; therefore, it is embedded in BWM to determine indicator weights. Moreover, the fuzzy BWM-TOPSIS method is applied to evaluate the water security levels of six regions in North China, a comparison analysis with the equal weight TOPSIS method as well as the fuzzy BWM-AHP method, and a sensitivity analysis for indicator weights are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of this proposed method. Finally, some suggestions based on the evaluation results are given for effective and rational utilization of water resources in North China.

Highlights

Since the beginning of the 21st century, water resource security issues have increasingly restricted development all over the world [1,2]
Method (BWM) is employed to calculate the indicator weights, as triangular fuzzy linguistic sets can more flexibly describe the preferences of decision makers (DMs) regarding the indicators; it is embedded in Best–Worst Method (BWM) to determine indicator weights
This paper focuses on combining fuzzy BWM and TOPSIS methods to form a hybrid fuzzy BWM-TOPSIS method for the evaluation of regional water resources security

Summary

Introduction

Since the beginning of the 21st century, water resource security issues have increasingly restricted development all over the world [1,2]. With the rapid development of China’s economy, water pollution has increasingly intensified, forming a compounded water shortage situation from both quality and quantity perspectives. In order to better represent the security degrees of the designated regions, the evaluation system is divided into two primary subsystems with significant characteristics: water quantity security and water quality security. Water resources condition is about water resources per capita, average annual rainfall, and the water resources modulus in a region, which helps in creating a general understanding of the water resources status in the designated region. Average annual rainfall is the sum of years of rainfall in a region divided by the number of years. Let C12 represent the average annual rainfall, Rs represent the sum of years of rainfall in the region, and Ny represent the number of years, C12 is defined as

Methods

Results

Conclusion