Multicriteria decision making (compromise programming) for integrated water resources management in an irrigation scheme

The performance objectives of an irrigation scheme are productivity, equity, adequacy, reliability, surety index and frequency index. These objectives conflict with each other so multiple objectives need to be considered when making decisions. An approach based on multi criteria decision making (MCDM) technique of compromise programming is presented in this paper. It consists of identifying different performance objectives (POs) (for example, productivity, equity etc.) that contribute to “overall performance index” (OPI) of irrigation management. Weights are assigned to each PO that reflects its relative importance. The values of the indicators are obtained from simulation-optimization modeling and weights are obtained by analytical hierarchical process (AHP). OPIs are obtained for different alternatives and the preferred alternative is the one that is nearest to the ideal point. The applicability of the developed approach is demonstrated with the help of case study from Maharashtra State, India, using the “AWAM” model to estimate the values of POs for different irrigation strategies or alternatives and comparison of POs obtained from the survey of head, middle and tail reach farmers. The results indicated that MCDM generated the same irrigation strategy for head and middle reach farmers; but a different strategy for tail reach farmers, based on their expressed PO weights.