Comprehensive Decision Approach for Sustainable Wastewater Reuse using Multicriteria Decision Analysis-GIS

Abstract

The evolving water scarcity in the Gaza Strip adds extra pressure on the limited available groundwater source and leads to water quality deterioration. There is a high need for sustainable nonconventional water resource. Wastewater reuse (WWR) is one of the main water strategies in the Gaza Strip due to the increase amount of generated wastewater and the rehabilitation of treatment facilities. However, WWR can generate negative impacts to the ecological and the socio- economical system once it has been poorly applied. The current study investigates the most sustainable WWR schemes by accounting for the impacts of WWR based on real field study. Multicriteria analysis and experts’ judgment were used to identify the impacts of WWR and to prioritise the severity of these impacts, respectively. WWR impacts were weighed using multi criteria analysis DEFINITE software according to their relative importance. Results indicated that public healthand cost of treatment are of the most concern. Spatial analysis using geographic information system (GIS 9.2) was conducted to investigate the areas with high potential for WWR over the Gaza Strip based on the multicriteria results. Resulted map showed that Gaza southern area has the high potential for WWR with theleast possible generated impacts..