Locating and Prioritizing Earth Dam Locations Using Boolean and MADM methods

Controlling and maintaining surface runoff for optimal use and recharge of groundwater resources is one of the important strategies in arid and semi-arid regions. Short earth dams are one of the least costly and most successful methods of flood control, water storage, groundwater utilization and sediment control. In this research, the Boolean model was used to locate these dams and the methods of network analysis process and VIKOR were used to prioritize it. In the first stage, using the Boolean model, inappropriate areas were removed and 43 potential areas were selected for the earth dam construction. Then using Google Earth and field views, 11 axes were designed to construct an earth dam in potential areas. Finally, these sites are used by network decision making process based on natural factors (rainfall, slope, geology, drainage and Erodibility) and socioeconomic factors (distance from city and village, distance from the road, distance from lending resources and water requirement), the results showed that the criterion of geology with relative importance of 0.472 had the most effect on the choice of dam axis. Finally, the 7rd place with a score of 0.115 in ANP method and 0.035 prominences in Vikor method was the first priority (Rank) for Earth dam construction.