TY - JOUR
T1 - A new methodology for assessing water quality, based on data envelopment analysis
T2 - Application to Algerian dams
AU - Soltani, Ahmed Amin
AU - Oukil, Amar
AU - Boutaghane, Hamouda
AU - Bermad, Abdelmalek
AU - Boulassel, Mohamed Rachid
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank ANRH and ANBT for providing the necessary data for conducting this study. They also thank the staff of the Directorate–General for Scientific Research and Technological Development DG–RSDT, Algeria, and Dr. Osman Abdalla and all the staff of the Water Research Center, Sultan Qaboos University, for their support during the present study; without their support, this study would not have been possible. Mr. Ahmed Amin Soltani is grateful for the financial support provided by the Algerian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research for his research visit, under the “Programme National Exceptionnel (PNE)”, grant no. 669/2019-2020.
Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank ANRH and ANBT for providing the necessary data for conducting this study. They also thank the staff of the Directorate?General for Scientific Research and Technological Development DG?RSDT, Algeria, and Dr. Osman Abdalla and all the staff of the Water Research Center, Sultan Qaboos University, for their support during the present study; without their support, this study would not have been possible. Mr. Ahmed Amin Soltani is grateful for the financial support provided by the Algerian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research for his research visit, under the ?Programme National Exceptionnel (PNE)?, grant no. 669/2019-2020.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2021/2
Y1 - 2021/2
N2 - The present paper aims to develop a new Water Quality Index (WQI) based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Rather than using subjective weights of a judgmental process as inputs of the DEA model, we propose more objective variables, identified as “optimistic closeness values”, appropriately derived from the observed values of the hydrochemical parameters. The proposed approach was employed to assess the water quality of 47 dams in Algeria, defined with a dataset of 10 hydrochemical parameters. The results of the DEA-based WQI application revealed that (i) 21.27%, 27.66%, 25.53%, 4.25% and 21.27% of the total dams are categorized as “Poor”, “Marginal”, “Medium”, “Good” and “Excellent” water quality, respectively; (ii) the best water quality is found in “Kissir” and the worst one in “Bougara”; (iii) a priority scale on the hydrochemical parameters can be set for the treatment of water using the notion of slack value. Collectively, the new methodology has proven its effectiveness not only for categorizing or ranking sites based on water quality but also as an alternative tool to be used to assist decision-makers in allocating funds and managing water resources.
AB - The present paper aims to develop a new Water Quality Index (WQI) based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Rather than using subjective weights of a judgmental process as inputs of the DEA model, we propose more objective variables, identified as “optimistic closeness values”, appropriately derived from the observed values of the hydrochemical parameters. The proposed approach was employed to assess the water quality of 47 dams in Algeria, defined with a dataset of 10 hydrochemical parameters. The results of the DEA-based WQI application revealed that (i) 21.27%, 27.66%, 25.53%, 4.25% and 21.27% of the total dams are categorized as “Poor”, “Marginal”, “Medium”, “Good” and “Excellent” water quality, respectively; (ii) the best water quality is found in “Kissir” and the worst one in “Bougara”; (iii) a priority scale on the hydrochemical parameters can be set for the treatment of water using the notion of slack value. Collectively, the new methodology has proven its effectiveness not only for categorizing or ranking sites based on water quality but also as an alternative tool to be used to assist decision-makers in allocating funds and managing water resources.
KW - Dam
KW - Data envelopment analysis
KW - Optimistic closeness value
KW - Risk ranking
KW - Water Quality index
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.106952
DO - 10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.106952
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85091967105
SN - 1470-160X
VL - 121
JO - Ecological Indicators
JF - Ecological Indicators
M1 - 106952
ER -