Environmental Risk Assessment of Drying the 4th and 5th Reservoir of Hour-Al-Azim Wetland Aiming to Develop Azadegan Oil-Field Using TOPSIS Method

The wetlands as the rich and fertile ecosystems may have the crucial role to socio-economic plans and can be more important in environmental plans. This study was done in 2015 to environmental risk assessment of drying up the reservoir number 4 and 5 of Hoor-Al-Azim wetland for develop the Azadegan oil field, using multi criteria decision making methods (TOPSIS). Hoor-Al-Azim wetland is located in the Iran-Iraq border, in Dashte-Azadegan county in south western of Iran in Khuzestan province. In this study first the Delphi method was used to identify risks in the area. 25 risk factors were recognized in 3 groups of physico-chemical risks, biological risks and socio-economic and cultural risks. In order to analyze and prioritize the identified risks the TOPSIS method was used. According to the TOPSIS method, the risks were prioritized to 3 criteria (severity, probability and sensitivity of the receiving environment). Results showed that creating centers of dust with weight of 0.828422 and leakage of oil pipelines with weight of 0.82658 as the most important risks and Reduction of livestock in the region with weight 0.089965 was the least important risk was identified. Finally, management strategies presented for risks control and risks reduction.