Sub-watersheds Hydrological Security Prioritization of the Gorganroud Watershed based on Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration (IHA)

To do this, 31 hydrological variables of streamflow in 16 sub-watersheds of the Gorganroud watershed, which were equipped with hydrometric stations, were calculated using Indicators of Hydrological Change (IHA) software. Shannon's entropy was used to weight the hydrological variables of the streamflow. Finally, four Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Methods (MCDMs) including Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), VlseKriterijumska Optimizcija I Kaompromisno Resenje (VIKOR), Simple Additive Weighting (SAW) and COmplex PRoportional Assessment (COPRAS) were implemented to prioritize the subwatersheds. The results showed that C23 (zero flow days) and C27 (high pulse count) variables received the highest and lowest weights with values of 0.057 and 0.006, respectively. The results of the subwatersheds prioritization based on the hydrological security showed that subwatershed S11 according to TOPSIS and VIKOR methods and subwatersheds S15 and S2 according to SAW and COPRAS methods have the highest hydrological security score. On the other hand, subwatershed S10 according to TOPSIS, VIKOR and COPRAS methods and subwatershed S14 according to SAW method were given the last priority. Evaluating the efficiency of MCDM methods showed that the VIKOR method provided more accurate results with the least intensity of variations.