Multicriterion Q-analysis and compromise programming for irrigation planning

Selection of the best compromise alternative plan in irrigation development strategies is examined in the multiobjective context with the aid of cluster analysis for a case study of Sri Ram Sagar Project, Andhra Pradesh. The study deals with three conflicting objectives, namely, net benefits, crop production and labour employment. Present analysis combines multiobjective optimization, cluster analysis and multicriterion decision making (MCDM) methods. Two MCDM methods compromise programming (CP) and multicriterion Q-analysis (MCQA) are employed to select the best compromise alternative. It is observed that net benefits, crop production and labour employment per hectare on average for the culturable command area (CCA) are Rs 8 907.9, 4.16 t and 226 man-days, respectively with irrigation intensity of 126.4%. Sensitivity analysis studies indicated that the ranking pattern is quite robust to the parameter changes.