Investigation of desalination plant construction based on environmental potential in the southern coasts of the Caspian Sea

Water supply is one of the basic and unavoidable needs in the natural cycle and human activities. The increasing development of the southern shores of the Caspian Sea on the one hand and the production of some strategic products with high water requirements such as rice, has led to attention to the issue of water supply, especially in agriculture, drinking and industry. Due to the limited fresh water resources available, desalination of Caspian Sea water is considered as a potential solution to replace water in this region. This study was conducted to investigate the possibility of utilizing desalination technology and identifying suitable locations for the construction of desalination plants in the Caspian Sea by multi-criteria AHP analysis method and considering the capacity and environmental potential of the southern coast of this sea in Mazandaran province. The results of this study, which was carried out with the approach of assessing the environmental effects of desalination in the Caspian Sea, have shown that 30% of the coast of Mazandaran is suitable, 34% unsuitable and 20% relatively suitable for the construction of desalination units. This study emphasizes the issue of desalination sewage management in the location and design criteria of units on the southern shores of the Caspian Sea and considers the use of modern saline sewage management methods to increase the capacity and environmental capacity for desalination of Caspian Sea water