Assessment of Flood Management Options by M-TOPSIS Model

The multi-criteria decision making model is an important tool for decision making in water resource management. In this paper، the TOPSIS model was used to rank seven flood management options in the Gorganrood river flood management project، including conservation of natural condition، Golestan reservoir management، levee construction، diversions-channel construction، flood forecasting and warning system، flood insurance، and integration of flood warning system and flood insurance. Economical، technical، social and environmental qualitative values and criteria weights were determined by expert judgment and used to evaluate options. Due to limitations in the TOPSIS model، the M-TOPSIS model was used and obtained results were compared with the TOPSIS model outputs. The results showed that the M-TOPSIS model would produce better results for ranking options and sensitivity analysis of criteria weights. Therefore، given the significance of social and environmental criteria، this model is recommended for ranking flood management options.