Identification and Prioritization of Underground Dam Sites in Qare-Bute Plian of Zanjan Using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP)

The main objective of this paper is to identify suitable site to construction underground dam in Qare-Booteh Flood Plain at South West of Zanjan Province. The groundwater level of the floodplain is reduced in recent years. Underground dam construction could compensate some part of the ground water scarcity. Therefor, the area has been investigated to find suitable site for underground dam construction and 13 potential sites have been identified in preliminary surveys. Due to the effect of several factors to determine the best site, the most significant factors have been recognized. These factors include; geological units,faults, type of the drainage, water quality, depth of the bedrock and reservoir volume. Using hierarchical analysis, dual comparison between the main criteria and sub-criteria has been carried out and the coefficient effect of the each factorhas been calculated. In order to compare the theresults, usual weighting method is used to prioritize the options. The comparison shows the consistency of appropriate prioritize options result by two different methods. However, it seems that the result of AHP method is more reliable due to pair judgment of the factors