Priority of Gorgan's sub-watershed for using rainfed agriculture using Multi-Attribute Decision Making (MADM) and GIS

In this research priority of Gorgan’s sub- watershed were done after normalizing the indicators using GIS software. The multi-attribute decision-making methods including ELECTRE, TOPSIS and SAW were used in this study. AHP was applied in order to weighting the indicators in Expert Choice software. First, Priority the sub-watershed were done by ELECTRE, TOPSIS and SAW using the Excel. Each method according to its approach presented different ranking. Second, Copeland method was selected for removing the conflict among results of applied methods. There was found the significant relationship among ranking methods using Spearman correlation coefficient. Then, the correlation coefficient of the ranking results was measured between Copeland and decision-making methods. Results showed that sub- watershed 3, 4, 5, 6 and 11 regarding to three cited methods were similar in priority 1 to 4 and also they have the most significant potential for agriculture among all sub-basins. The results of correlation showed SAW, ELECTRE and TOPSIS were in first, second and third grade of Gorgan’s priority for rainfed agriculture, respectively. The analyses indicated Copeland was the best method for agriculture.