Gis‑multi criteria decision analysis‑based land suitability assessment for dam site selection
Citation
C. B. Karakuş1 · S. Yıldız2 Received: 25 February 2022 / Revised: 25 May 2022 / Accepted: 26 May 2022 / Published online: 16 July 2022 © The Author(s) under exclusive licence to Iranian Society of Environmentalists (IRSEN) and Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University 2022Abstract
In this study, the appropriate areas were determined to select the most suitable dam sites within the borders of Sivas/Turkey
with the help of Geographic Information System (GIS) according to the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method, which
is one of the multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods. Nine criteria (elevation, slope, distance to roads, rainfall,
lineament density, distance to residential areas, land use/land cover, soil types and stream density) were used for dam site
selection. The CR (Consistency) value was calculated as 0.054 for the criteria considered in the selection of the dam site
within the scope of the AHP method, and this value showed that the results obtained were consistent and acceptable. The
suitability categories revealed by the dam site selection suitability map created with the method were represented by 5 different classes “very high (12.70%),” “high (20.63%),” “medium (25.43%),” “low (25.11%)” and “very low (16.12%).” Most
of the dams currently operating in Sivas province (64.63%) were in the "high" and "medium" level of suitability, while the
majority of the planned dams (57.14%) were represented by the "low" class of suitability. The dam site selection suitability
mapping obtained as a result of the study is a very important tool in terms of providing resource data to decision makers for
regional water resources management and sustainable development.