Ranking of Agricultural Water Demand Management Strategies in Arid Regions by Hybrid Model of AHP and M-TOPSIS

In this research, strategies of agricultural water demand management in arid regions was ranked by the proposed hybrid model (MTAHP) of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Modified Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (MTOPSIS) methods. The proposed hybrid model (MTAHP) uses the strengths of the AHP and TOPSIS and avoids their weaknesses. For this purpose, the AHP model was used for determining relative weights and consistency ratio assessment and, finally, M-TOPSIS model was used for ranking the strategies. To apply the MTAHP model, 35 Iranian experts in the field of agricultural water management participated in the survey. Model results showed that the best strategy for agricultural water demand management in arid regions was training the farmers. The next ranks of strategies in order were: improvement of cropping pattern, land leveling, modernization of irrigation systems in the region, and using recovered water. The lowest ranks belonged to the trade water strategy and virtual water imports. The results of this research showed that the hybrid model of AHP and MTOPSIS can be used in evaluating and prioritizing the strategies for agricultural water demand management.