Development of priority setting process for the small stream restoration projects using multi criteria decision analysis

Abstract

This study performed a flood risk assessment using one of the multi criteria decision-making methods to identify the small stream basins with high risk of flooding and to determine the optimal small stream restoration measures by priority ranking for flood risk. The 12 representative factors for the flood risk assessment were carefully selected and constructed for the three main aspects, such as pressure factors, state factors and response factors including the government capacities under the pressure-state-response classification system for identifying the 212 small stream watersheds. The entropy weight coefficient method helps to reduce subjective judgments as well as calculate effective weighting coefficients. To evaluate the practical applications of the proposed method, the results from the preference ranking organization method for enrichment evaluation (PROMETHEE) with six preference functions are compared with the official priority ranking of flood risk assessment for the Small Stream Watershed Restoration Projects which is determined by the weighted method. Also, guidelines for the community-based restoration projects such as prevention or preparedness, sustainable development and resilient recovering have been suggested based on the three predicted priority ranking groups. It is expected that the flood risk assessment ranking ensured by full verification can help to establish optimal regional restoration plans against flooding disasters with respect to causes and characteristics of past flash flood.