Identification of Suitable Areas for Small Water Storage Reservoir Construction Using Various Decision-Making Methods (Case Study: Zanjan Province)

Location identification for the construction of small water storage reservoirs is currently receiving significant attention, particularly in regions experiencing reduced precipitation, such as arid and semi-arid areas. This study utilized various Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) techniques, including the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), Analytic Network Process (ANP), and Boolean logic, to pinpoint the suitable areas for placing small water storage reservoirs (SWSRs). Criteria such as distance to water resources, water salinity, topography, land use, geological attributes, road accessibility, and climatic conditions were considered. The zoning maps of criteria were prepared, and after conducting pairwise comparisons and determining their weight coefficients, the final land classification map was produced. The findings revealed that access to water resources emerged as the most critical criterion. The location maps generated through the AHP and ANP methods showed that 50.2% and 51.7% of the total study area were deemed suitable, respectively, with 18.2% and 16% classified as unsuitable. In comparison, the Boolean method indicated that 5.6% of the area was suitable for constructing SWSRs, while 94.4% was unsuitable. Finally, AHP and ANP techniques are suggested for determining the appropriate locations for constructing SWSRs.