Performing Sensitivity Analysis of Municipal Wastewater Treatment Process Using AHP

One of the main issues before the design and construction of any wastewater treatment plant is the selection of the optimal wastewater treatment process, since the wrong choice can have considerable effect in increasing expense, and also led to unattainable and undesired result.
The current study used the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) model to determine the effective criteria in the selection of the appropriate wastewater treatment process, are developing in cities such as Ardebil, Tabriz, and Uremia in order to prioritize and choose the most appropriate treatment process. In such cities the treatment process involved: Aerated Lagoon, Activated sludge, and Biolak. Based on the technical, economic and environmental criteria and related sub-criteria, the processes are weighted through pair wise comparison and the results obtained are assessed using the Expert Choice software.
Findings: Finally, Biolak was selected as the optimal process and Activated Sludge and Aerated Lagoon were respectively placed in the next priorities. Sensitivity Analysis is performed on the major factors to investigate the sensitivity of the alternatives in order to apply changes in the priorities of the criteria.