Ranking Irrigation Management Alternatives by Multicriterion Analysis

Selection of the best alternative plan in irrigation development strategies is examined in the multiobjective context. Three conflicting objectives-net benefits, agricultural production and labour employment-are considered. The procedure combines multiobjective optimization, cluster analysis, and multicriterion decision making (MCDM) methods. Five MCDM methods, ELECTRE-2, PROMETHEE-2, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), Compromise Programming (CP) and Multicriterion QAnalysis (MCQA-2) are used in the evaluation. Spearman rank correlation test is employed to assess the correlation between them. The methodology resulted in the selection of the best alternative plan when applied to a case study of the Sri Ram Sagar Project, Andhra Pradesh, India.