Developing a Multi-Criteria Fuzzy Model for Water Pricing in Irrigation Networks

The agricultural water price plays a key role in the optimal allocation of water resources، financial independence of irrigation networks، water costs supply and increase water productivity. The main aim of the present study is to develop a multi-criteria fuzzy model for water pricing in irrigation networks. The model was used for analyzing water price of Varamin irrigation command area. For this purpose، thirteen effective criteria on water price of irrigation schemes were considered. The most important steps of the development process included determination of the criteria’s values and normalizing them، computing weight of the criteria، definition of classes and classification، forming membership vector، forming price vector، and combination of the vectors. The results showed that the criterion of irrigation network type، independence of public support، and income per unit of area had the greatest impact on water price. The proposed model estimated the water price of the study area 547. 33 Rls/m3، as well the water price obtained 944. 33 Rls/m3 based on water harvesting cost approach. The findings indicated that the current water price of command area (96 Rls/m3) has a large difference in compare to the developed model and water harvesting cost approach. It is emphasized that there is a major distance between the real water value and the current water price. The multi-criteria fuzzy model with considering the actual conditions of irrigation district، in which almost all criteria have a value less than the ideal value، can accurately estimate the agricultural water price. The water price obtained with the proposed model may be utilized as the real water price of irrigation network، but the requirement frameworks have t be prepared. The proposed model has a desirable accuracy for assessing the effective parameters of water price in irrigation networks and can be utilized to determine the water price of these systems.