An integrated fuzzy Fuzzy AHP–ELECTREIII Methodology for Environmental Impact Assessment of Dams in Khuzestan Province

Dams have a great deal of positive and negative effects on the environment besides their benefits like controlling stream regimes, and generating energy. In this study the environmental impact of dams being built in the Khuzestan province were evaluated on the basis of a multi-criteria decision-making method. To assess the environmental impact of the dam in this model four main criteria of physical-chemical, ecological, socio-economic, cultural and fifteen sub criteria were used. At the end, Electre III method also was used to rank the alternatives. The results indicated that according to experts opinions physical-chemical criterion with weight of 0.439 has greatest impact on the assessment process. The ecological, socioeconomic and cultural criteria rank next in effectiveness with weights of 0.241, 0.227 and 0.093 respectively. Also decreasing surface water quality has the highest weight among the sub-criteria. Finally the results also showed that the Shirinab and Kheyrabad dam have highest environmental impact in Khuzestan province.