Locating of Suitable Areas to Provide Drinking Water Using Multi Criteria Decision Making and Fuzzy Logic Process (Case Study: Tabas Aquifer)

The role of groundwater has always been an important issue in order to provide drinking water especially in desert areas. However, studies and decision-making on water supply from the water source is more costly and difficult rather than surface water. Therefore, it is important to note the newest methods like zoning. Due to the effects of water chemical parameters on the quality, application of AHP, ANP, FAHP, and FANP methods lead to more accurate results. The aim of this research was to zone groundwater quality using ANP and FANP models and comparison of the results obtained by those achieved, by AHP and FAHP models.
For this purpose, the study was conducted to zone groundwater quality in Tabas aquifer located at the east of Iran with latitude between 33˚ 19’-33˚ 50’ and longitude between 60˚ 42’-63˚ 12’. In this study, the parameters studied were Mg, Ca, SO4, Cl, total dissolved solids (TDS), electrical conductivity (EC), and total hardness (TH). Raster maps for each parameter were prepared and these maps were converted to fuzzy maps. Then, the maps were integrated together using the weights from AHP and ANP methods.
The research indicated that the most weighted parameters using ANP method were Cl (0.172), Mg (0.161) and EC (0.159). Cl (0.457), TDS (0.163) and EC (0.141) were the most weighted parameters using AHP methods. In addition, the concentration of each parameter was increased from the east and southeast to the northeast.
Based on the results and groundwater flow path, water quality was reduced due to water flow in aquifer (from the east and southeast to northeast). Hence, the east and the southeast were the best location to provide drinking water. The area of these regions were 22.12, 25.08, 57.35 and 58.24% out of total area as determined using AHP, ANP, FAHP, and FANP, respectively.