Introduction

Abstract

For last more than 20 years, multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) models have been applied to the field of natural resources management. In literature, eight areas of application of MCDM models are identified in water resources management: catchment management; ground water management; infrastructure selection; project appraisal; water allocation; water policy and the planning of supply; water quality management; and marine protected area management. MCDM models can provide solutions for complex water decision-making problems. In majority MCDM models, assigning weights to the evaluation criteria is an important step. For that, various weighting methods have been proposed in literature and applied for solving different MCDM problems.