Abstract
This study investigates how the priority rankings for dam construction sites vary with multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) techniques and generation approaches for incomplete information. Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) seeks to recommend sustainable dam construction sites based on their environmental and ecological impacts in a long-term plan for dam construction (LPDC) in South Korea. However, if specific information is missing, the SEA is less useful for choosing a dam construction site. In this study, we applied AHP, ELECTRE III, PROMETHEE II and Compromise Programming as MCDM techniques, and used binomial and uniform distributions to generate missing information. We considered five dam site selection situations and compared the results as they depended on both MCDM techniques and information generation methods. The binomial generation method showed the most obvious priorities. All MCDM techniques showed similar priorities in the dam site selection results except for ELECTREE III. The results demonstrate that selecting an appropriate MCDM technique is more important than the data generation method. However, using binomial distribution to generate missing information is more effective in providing a robust priority than uniform distribution, which is a commonly used technique.
Highlights
Water facilities, such as dams, levees, and river barrages, have contributed to Korean economic development by supplying water, preventing flood damage, and providing hydropower
Most government-led water resource projects have caused social conflicts since the late 1990s, when the Korean economic paradigm shifted from government-led development focused on economic growth to a free-market economy focused on quality of life and an environmentally friendly landscape
In this study we explored the robust prioritization of environmental and ecological influences in decision making based on incomplete information available from the Strategic environmental assessment (SEA)
Summary
Water facilities, such as dams, levees, and river barrages, have contributed to Korean economic development by supplying water, preventing flood damage, and providing hydropower. Most government-led water resource projects have caused social conflicts since the late 1990s, when the Korean economic paradigm shifted from government-led development focused on economic growth to a free-market economy focused on quality of life and an environmentally friendly landscape. EIAs have been implemented to estimate environmental effects, and they have generated awareness among engineers and planners of the importance of environmentally friendly development and conservation [1]. EIAs are usually implemented after a number of strategic decisions have already been made in high-level plans. Their inherent limitations, such as the challenges presented by projects that cause serious environmental damage, have been exposed [2]. It is necessary to have a strategic approach to environmentally sound and sustainable development that includes consideration of environmental effects from the earliest stages of decision making, including policy plan programs and strategic environmental assessments (SEAs)
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