The method of multi-criteria ranking of monitoring stations for water discharge in rivers for determining priorities of their...

The method of multi-criteria ranking of monitoring stations for water discharge in rivers for determining priorities of their location

This work considers the issue of optimizing the water discharge monitoring network in order to increase the accuracy of computing a river water balance, thereby optimizing the water use within such water basin based on the sustainable development and river basin integrated management principles. The authors hereof have developed the multi-criteria method for ranking the river water discharge monitoring stations; such method is to be applied to determine the priorities of their location, under the limited funding conditions, based on a systemic analysis of the water (water management) balance components with due regard to the river network topology and the specifics of water use within such network. The method offered herein differs from the existing methods inasmuch as it discriminates between the phase of the evaluation of the weight of the ranking criteria and the phases of data processing related to the potential water flow gauging stations according to such criteria, thus ensuring complete automation of such data processing and high speed and efficiency of such method. The functionability of the method has been demonstrated in practice. The method is an omni-purpose tool applicable also for optimization of other types of monitoring networks.