Multi Criteria Decision Analysis to Set the Priority of Interventions in Water Distribution Systems

Water distribution systems play a fundamental role due to their impact on public health, food, agriculture and energy and consequently, they are identified as critical infrastructures. Integrated urban water management is affected by critical issues that may interfere with the achievement of the best management practice. The work shows a methodology for the identification of interventions priorities in a region where several water distribution systems, with different criticalities, coexist. As metric for critical issues, IWA PIs has been chosen. Multi-criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) is applied to obtain a sorting of critical issues and thus to define the priorities in the investment planning. The aim is to provide a tool that supports the consistency check between criticalities and interventions planning. The methodology has been applied to 15 management areas within an homogeneous region in the North of Italy.